LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

i — --T- 

Chap, Copyright No. 

UMTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



s* 



THE GREAT EXAMPLE 



THE 

GREAT EXAMPLE 



BY 



/ 



GEORGE HENRY SOMERSET WALPOLE, D.D. 

PRINCIPAL OF BEDE COLLEGE, DURHAM 



^%^%^ A 



NEW YORK 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

LONDON AND BOMBAY 

1897 



K, 



. tine. 



Copyright, 1897, by 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

All rights reserved 



The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
Astor Place, New York 



TO THE 

Very Reverend the Dean, the Faculty 

AND THE 

Students of the General Theological Seminary 

New York 

the following addresses 
are dedicated 

WITH 

GREAT RESPECT AND SINCERE AFFECTION 

BY ONE 

WHO WAS ASSOCIATED WITH THEM IN WORK 

FOR SEVEN YEARS. 



PREFACE. 

These addresses would not have been published 
but for a promise made five years ago to some of the 
clergy of the Diocese of New York before whom 
they were first delivered, and the belief that there is 
still room for a book of Devotions to help Candi- 
dates for Holy Orders during the days immediately 
preceding their Ordination. Retreats for the Ember 
seasons, though happily common, are not universal, 
and there are not a few young men who, with the 
very best intentions to pass such a time seriously, 
find it difficult to know how they may employ it 
profitably. The aim of this little book is to supply 
their need ; it therefore contains not only addresses 
on the fourfold life of the Ministry, but outlines of 
meditation together with some devotions. The pas- 
sage of Scripture selected for meditation is intended 
to suggest the teaching that follows in the address, 
and the devotions to gather it up in short petitions 
and acts of praise. So it is hoped that those unable 
to share in the blessings of a Retreat may find help 
in making some preparation by themselves for enter- 
ing into the thoughts of the greatest day of their 
lives. 

The forms in which the devotions are given are in 



viii Preface. 

nearly all cases substantially the same as those fol- 
lowed on the Quiet Day in New York and in the 
Retreat at Albany nearly two years ago, but the 
addresses have, in such parts as seemed necessary 
for the sake of clearness, been amplified. The in- 
formal literary expression, for which some apology 
seems necessary, is in a measure due to the desire to 
preserve as far as possible their character as spoken 
addresses. 

In conclusion, the Author desires to add that he is 
not unaware that in presenting so great a Subject, he 
runs considerable risk not only of belittling It by 
trying to unfold It, but also of marring Its majestic 
proportions by contemplating It so largely in the 
light of experience. The venture is made in reliance 
upon the judgment of those for whose opinion he 
entertains a high respect. It is not likely that the 
book is free from mistakes; but anything that is 
not in accord with the mind of the Church he de- 
sires by anticipation to fully and unreservedly retract. 

The Author desires to acknowledge his indebted- 
ness to the many authors from whom he has quoted, 
and also to the widow of the Rev. S. Kettlewell, by 
whose kind permission he has been allowed to make 
extracts from the valuable ' Meditations on the 
Life of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis — translated 
and edited by the Ven. Archdeacon Wright and the 
Rev. S. Kettlewell.' 

The Feast of Epiphany, 
Bede College, Durham, 1897. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I. The Vision of the Christian Ministry . 4 
II. The Prophetic Office or the Ministry of 
"The Man" 

The Preacher . . . . . 18 

III. The Prophetic Office or the Ministry of 

" The Man " 

The Teacher 42 

IV. The Lion or the Ministry of " The King " 

The Royal Office 72 

V. The Lion or the Ministry of "The King" 

Characteristics of the Royal Spirit . . 104 

VI. The Ox or the Ministry of "The Priest" 

The Priest in his Life towards God . 126 

VII. The Ox or the Ministry of "The Priest" 

The Priest's Office towards Man . .158 

VIII. The Eagle or the Ministry of "The 
Seer " 

Characteristics of the Inner Life . . 186 

IX. The Eagle or the Ministry of " The 
Seer " 

Aids to the Inner Life . . . .214 



I. 

THE VISION OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 



MEDITATION. 

The Retreat and its Blessings. 

And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impedi- 
ment in his speech ; and they beseech him to put his hand upon 
him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his 
fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue ; And 
looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, 
that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and 
the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. — St. 
Mark vii. 32-35. 

" He took him aside" — So Jesus is taking- me aside 

(a) from parish, friends, family cares, that I 
The Retreat. ma y realize afresh His Presence. At first 
it seems awkward to be alone, even though it is with 
Him, for I do not see Him very clearly ; but I must get 
rid of this impediment in my speech, this confusion of 
mind and slowness of utterance which my people have 
noticed. I must get time to hear His Voice, which I 
have been so long without hearing. For my flock's 
sake, if not my own, I must go aside with Jesus and 
steadily contemplate Him by faith. 

"He put His fingers into his ears, and He spit, and 

(b) touched his tongue " — Yes ; something like 
The Method. t hi s He will do for me. Only instead of 
His fingers into my ears, His precious Body and Blood 
into my mouth. Instead of the outward sign of His 
life, His very Life itself; instead of the touch, His in- 
dwelling Presence. Surely if the less effected so com- 



Meditation. 3 

plete a cure, the greater will not do less. Believe, then, 
O my soul. Open thy mouth wide and He will fill it. 

"He sighed" — Yes ; this I know He does over my own 
sad condition and that of my people. If He has pity for 
me, have I none for myself? A deaf priest unable to 
preach plainly ! What can be done with him ? Show 
him the sorrows of Jesus and he will surely cry to be 
healed. 

"He saith unto him, Ephphatha " — Oh, Lord Jesus, 
Thou good and gracious Physician, say this to me dur- 
ing this Retreat that I may hear Thy voice again and 
be able to speak plainly. 

"His ears were opened, . . . he spake plain" — 
(c) Yes ; so others have told me. They have 

The Blessing, told how, as the Retreat continued, the 
Scripture, the Psalms, the Hymns seemed to be full of 
teaching ; and how they felt a new power of prayer. 
May it be so with me. " Lord, speak, for Thy servant 
heareth." "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief." 

To be steadfast in staying " aside from the multitude,' 
„ , . and to contemplate Jesus Christ and Him 

Resolution. , r J 

only. 



I. 

THE VISION OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 

Preparation for the Vision. 

For five years Ezekiel had been waiting for a 
clearer knowledge of the mind of God. Called to 
a holy priesthood, filled with expectation of what 
that office would mean, he had as yet received no 
revelation which enabled him to see how he would 
exercise it. But they were years of rich experience, 
for, living as he did, some four hundred miles away 
from Jerusalem, among the captives, he was enabled 
to enter into their feelings, to understand their sor- 
rows and complainings, and so to interpret to them 
the Vision when God might show it. He learned 
patience, sympathy, and faith. 

It may be that some of us, though priests and 
exercising our office, have not yet learned in what 
particular direction our work is to lie. We, too, are 
waiting for a revelation of God's mind. We, like 
Ezekiel, have been led by the Spirit far from our 
homes and familiar faces, and are " among the cap- 
tives," amongst those who are bound by traditional 
customs and class feelings and prejudices, which 
prevent our going forth in that freedom we desire. 



Accompaniments of the Vision. 5 

And yet this time, which seems so largely barren, has 
been fruitful. We have become acquainted with 
things and people as they are, we have learned some- 
thing of the nature of our work, we see what must be 
done though we know not yet how to do it. Let us 
not be in haste. Ezekiel had no vision till he was 
thirty years of age, and even of the Master Himself 
we read that He was thirty years of age when the 
heavens were opened and the Spirit as a Dove de- 
scended upon Him. It may be that now we shall 
see more clearly where and what our future work is 
to be. 

Accompaniments of the Vision. 

" The word of the Lord came expressly unto Eze- 
kiel." " The hand of the Lord was there upon him." 

The first phrase speaks of the objective character 
of the Revelation, the second of the Divine sympa- 
thy which enabled him to bear it. The "Vision was 
not the outcome of a dreamy contemplation of re- 
ligious subjects, nor an ecstasy which was the result of 
hard thinking, but a Divine interposition. Ezekiel 
remembered distinctly the year, the month, the very 
day when the Word of God ' ' came expressly ' ' to 
him. He remembered, too, the impression, as of the 
hand of some friend upon his shoulder bidding him 
look. It stirred every faculty within him. As the 
hand of the Lord roused the prophet Elisha when he 
sat moodily before the three kings not knowing what 
to say; as it quickened even the physical strength of 



6 The Vision of the Christian Ministry. 

Elijah so that he ran with extraordinary speed to 
Jezreel before the storm that was sweeping in from 
the sea; as it awakened Daniel, fallen into a deep 
sleep, and prepared him to face the vision of things 
to come; as it gave life to St. John when he lay at 
the feet of his Lord as one dead ; so it awakened and 
excited all the powers of Ezekiel, and he looked, 
expecting some great sight. 

To us, too, may come some such experience. John 
Bunyan describes how in one great spiritual conflict 
with the Tempter the word of the Lord came so ex- 
pressly to him that it was "even as if one had 
clapped me upon my back." And if we may not feel 
so vivid a realization of the Divine Presence as is 
there described, yet to us will come, it may be in the 
Meditation or in the Divine Food, a strong spiritual 
stimulus, an inrush of the power of the Holy Ghost, 
giving at once illumination and consolation. 

The Vision. 

At first " a whirlwind" " a great cloud" and " a 
fire infolding itself." So Ezekiel endeavors to place 
before us that which he first saw. The words convey 
no distinct image, for none is intended. At first with 
us, as with him, there is confusion ; we seem to see 
nothing. Our mind is in a whirl ; we are swept by a 
storm of emotions ; stirred, awakened, and excited, 
and yet no one thought is clear. The only conviction 
is that we are in the presence of a Divine Person, 



The Revelation of God. 7 

for out of the midst of our mental and spiritual con- 
fusion we see " eyes of bright brass " (this seems to 
be the meaning of the phrase "color of amber") 
reading us through and through. 

But as Ezekiel looked and looked upon the face of 
God thus manifested, and his eyes became used to the 
brightness of that divine light, he saw that the Majesty 
of God was borne upon four living creatures, more 
human than anything else, and yet each having the 
likeness of a lion, an ox, and an eagle, as well as that 
of a man. There was much else that he was enabled 
to notice and which he has given us, for the develop- 
ment of which we have not time here. It is sufficient 
to consider the broad features of the "Vision. And 
first let us note the quarter whence it came. Not 
from Jerusalem, as Ezekiel might have supposed, but 
from the north. Accustomed to the daily splendor 
of the Temple, its ceaseless worship, intercession, 
and sacrifice, it was natural for the prophet to sup- 
pose that the revelation of God was confined to that 
hallowed spot and those sacred ministries of high 
priest, priest, and Levite. He now learns that from 
the north, the quarter most to be feared, God mani- 
fests Himself. 

We, too, cherishing naturally and rightly the splen- 
did traditions and the chastened and delicate beauty 
of the Church's services, are tempted to feel that the 
revelation of God is confined to them ; that only in 
the Liturgy, the Sacraments, and the varied Ministries 
of the Body of Christ can God be revealed, and we 



8 The Vision of the Christian Ministry. 

are therefore seriously depressed when we think of 
all those hindrances and limitations by which the 
Divine Revelation is confined and darkened. We are 
disheartened with the thought that large numbers, 
even of the citizens of Christ's Kingdom, are indiffer- 
ent or hostile to that ministry which has been ordained 
to be the medium by which the Word of God is to be 
made known. This Vision gives us a wider concep- 
tion of the Divine Ministry. All creation is seen to 
be carrying the message of God to mankind. " The 
heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament 
sheweth His handywork." Our service is not so 
isolated, not so peculiar as it appeared. So far from 
it being exceptional to serve God, the Universe pro- 
claims His service as its law. " Subject to vanity " * 
at present, and therefore not able to give so clear 
a witness as she would like, yet by her groans as well 
as by her smiles Nature testifies to " the eternal 
power and Godhead " 2 of her Creator so that men 
who refuse to accept her testimony are without 
excuse. 

But though men have not the only part in God's 
service, though we are taught to invoke the moun- 
tains and hills, the seas and floods, the winds of 
God, the whales, the fowls of the air, the beasts and 
cattle, to praise the Lord, yet ministry is seen to be 
chiefly human. " This was their appearance; they 
had the likeness of a man." Men are the priests of 
creation ; they utter intelligently and consciously all 
1 Rom. viii. 19-22. 2 Rom. i. 20. 



Manifold Mediation. g 

that Nature is trying to say. The eagle, the ox, and 
the lion are all summed up in man, who is not only 
their crown, but their spokesman. In spiritually 
minded ascetics who soar above the earth and mundane 
wants, in self-sacrificing and devoted priests who have 
laid down their lives for their brethren, in zealous and 
wise-minded rulers and kings who have spent their 
strength in making the world better ; in and by these 
— men of all lands and all tongues : a Gautama, a Soc- 
rates, a Confucius, and thousands whose names none 
know but He whose message they bore — God has 
made Himself known to the sons of men. 

But their voices are difficult to explain, their ut- 
terances are. uncertain, their movement hesitating. 
They need that which they themselves supplied to 
creation ; they need an Interpreter, and this God has 
supplied in His Church — the chosen few who are to 
represent the needs of their brethren before God, and 
bring back from Him that knowledge which is posi- 
tive, certain, and clear. Here, again, we find that so 
far from this ministry being confined to the threefold 
order of the ministry, all the members of Christ have 
a share in it — " the manifestation of the Spirit is 
given to every man ' ' J — and, again, in the Church 
we find the same types we found in mankind, only 
clearer and more sharply defined. 

There are the seers, the mystics, the monks, nuns, 
and students, those who have lived apart from the 
world — a St. Bernard and a Tauler, a St. Catherine 

1 I Cor. xii. 7. 



io The Vision of the Christian Ministry. 

of Sienna, a Hooker — eagles living in the clouds and 
speaking of the mysteries of God. 

There are the Patriarchs, Bishops, Priests, who 
have died for men — a St. Ignatius, a St. Augustine, 
a Patteson, and a Lowder — offering themselves as 
Phinehas did of old for the people, and standing 
between the quick and the dead. 

There are the rulers, men who have founded king- 
doms and shaped constitutions — a Louis of France, 
an Alfred of England, a Washington of America. 

And there are also the Prophets, men gifted with 
utterance, governing by words, discovering men's 
hearts to themselves, discerners of the times — men 
like Chrysostom, Savonarola, Maurice, and Liddon ; 
men like Wordsworth, Longfellow, Tennyson, and 
Browning. 

All these, and many others, share our ministry and 
take their part in bearing along the ages the knowl- 
edge of the saving Presence of God. 

And above them, above this firmament studded 
with stars, each differing from its fellow in glory, 
" the likeness of a throne," and "upon the like- 
ness of the Throne the likeness as the appearance 
of a man ' ' — of that Man in whom each finds his 
image and type, that One whose character needed to 
be set forth in a fourfold Gospel, depicting by the 
hand of St. Matthew His portrait as Prophet, by that 
of St. Mark His portrait as King, by that of St. Luke 
His portrait as High Priest, and by that of St. John 
His portrait as the Eternal Word made flesh, reveal- 



Ma?iifold Ministry. 1 1 

ing the glory of the Father — that is the Vision, one 
surely full of comfort and strength. Separated as we 
are by our vocation, our dress, and even our language, 
moulded as it is, and sobered by the chastening influ- 
ence of the daily use of the Divine Offices, we are apt 
to feel lonely, and, as we stand in some crowded throng 
of our countrymen, a little peculiar, as though we were 
the solitary bearers of the Divine message. It is not 
so ; amongst those around us are many like-minded, 
though not called with our calling. And we, the 
priests of the Church, are to be for them what they 
are for the world of mankind and what Humanity 
is for the Universe. We, like our Divine Master, 
whose example we strive to follow, are to sum up 
their various ministries in our own. We are to be 
Prophets, Kings, and Seers, as well as Priests. Our 
Priesthood virtually contains within itself the Pro- 
phetic and Royal ministries, and is sustained by that 
of the Seer. We cannot resign any one of the three. 
If our life should be mainly that of the student or 
teacher, we shall need the authority of Kingship and 
the broad humanity of Priesthood to make it effec- 
tive ; or, again, if our life be chiefly spent in govern- 
ment, its rule is sure to be harsh and unsympathetic 
unless we are in touch with those we govern by the 
exercise of our Prophetic and Priestly ministries. 
We are strong in proportion as we are four-sided, weak 
in proportion as we are one-sided. It may be that as 
we study the outline of the Vision presented to us in 
the perfect life of the Son of Man, we shall see, as 



12 The Vision of the Christian Ministry. 

Ezekiel saw, that our work is to be mainly prophetic, 
or it may be that we shall feel that our strength lies 
rather in a loving and wise care for individuals ; but 
in whatever direction the Divine leading points, we 
shall find our mission spoiled unless we make " a 
full proof " of every part of our ministry. 1 
1 2 Tim. iv. 5. 



DEVOTIONS. 

Oh, how amiable are Thy dwellings, Thou Lord of 
Hosts ! My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into 
Thy courts ! My heart and my flesh cry out for the 
Living God ! For I have looked upon the Face of Thy 
Majesty, I have beheld Thy Glory. I would therefore 
dwell with Thee as long as I live. 

But Thou callest for service and not simply for contem- 
plation. Oh, how good it is to teach, and to baptize, and 
to rule, and to study the Divine Word ! How good to 
voice the inarticulate cries of Nature and the aspirations 
of mankind, to make all the earth praise Thee and sing 
unto Thee, so that all flesh may bless Thy holy Name, 
that every creature may serve Thee ! But who is suffi- 
cient for these things ? Alas ! not I, stained with many 
sins, enfeebled with repeated acts of self-indulgence ! 
But Thou, O Lord, who hast called me to this Ministry, 
wilt give me the grace to fulfil its duties. Thou wilt 
cleanse, purify, and strengthen me so that I may be 
Prophet and Priest, Ruler and Seer. Thou hast made 
Thy servant Thy Minister, and I am but a little child ; 
I know not how to go out or to come in. And Thy 
servant is in the midst of Thy people whom Thou hast 
chosen ; give, therefore, Thy servant an understanding 
heart to judge Thy people, a deep sympathy wherewith 
to pray for Thy people, and a wise mind that I may 
teach Thy people. And so make me to fulfil Thy Minis- 
try after the glorious Pattern given to us in the Life of 
our great High Priest, Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, 
in whose Name I ask these blessings. 



II. 



THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OR THE MINISTRY 
OF "THE MAN." 



MEDITATION. 

The Revelation of God. 

In the beginning- was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with 
God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, 
(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the 
Father,) full of grace and truth. — St. John i. i, 2, 14. 

1. "In the beginning was the Word. The Word was 
with God, and the Word was God'" — Here is the basis 
of my preaching. Long before time began, in the far 
reaches of Eternity, the Invisible and Immortal God is 
expressed in the Son Who is eternally generated from 
Him ; fully expressed for "the Word was God." Every 
inspiration, then, that I have is not the creation of my 
own mind or imagination, but the Revelation of the 
Word through the Spirit. It is a flash from the Un- 
created Light. But see to it, O my soul, that as the 
Word is ever towards God, so thy face is ever towards 
the Word. 

2. " The Word was made flesh " — Wondrous conde- 
scension ! Unspeakable compassion ! The Mind of 
God, Infinite and Incomprehensible, translated for us 
in human words and deeds by the Incarnation ! With 
this before me how dare I shrink from the lowest depths 
of humiliation if thereby I learn how to make known the 
Word of God ! Welcome fellowship with the outcast 
and poor, that through it I may learn the tongue of the 



Meditation. 17 

unlearned, and express the saving Gospel of Christ in 
simple language ! 

3. " The Word dwelt a?nong us " became the true She- 
chinah, the very Shrine of the Eternal, so that the weary 
entering His Refuge found rest to their souls. Is my 
preaching a revelation of the abiding Christ ? Do men 
turn to my ministrations expecting, as well as hoping, 
to find Him there ? Have my words made it clear to 
them that the Church is the Body of Christ ? 

I will seek more diligently the Face of God, I will try 
to walk in the light of His countenance, I 

Resolution. . .... 

will be earnest in my daily meditation that 
His Word may express itself through me. 



II. 



THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OR THE MINISTRY 
OF "THE MAN." 

The Preacher. 

All writers on the Gospels have noticed the resem- 
blance they bear in their characteristic features to 
those aspects of service which are brought before us 
in the Vision of Ezekiel which we have just looked 
at. Art has still further emphasized the likeness, so 
that there are but few churches which have not, in 
stone, needlework, or glass, perpetuated the teaching. 
As we have admired the skill which has so strikingly 
expressed the prophetic conception, have we realized 
that not in stone or needlework, but in our lives, 
those four types of ministry must be wrought out ? 

Perhaps there is some intended significance in that 
order of the Gospels which places that of St. Matthew 
first and that of St. John last. If we are right in fol- 
lowing the interpretation of St. Jerome, which, in the 
West, has gained "almost universal currency," and 
assigning the " man " to St. Matthew, it is not diffi- 
cult to see why this should be the first picture of the 
Divine Ministry to be set before us. Not only do 



The Prophet. 19 

we feel that there must be preaching before there can 
be a Kingdom and a Priestly Service, not only did our 
great Leader begin His work by preaching, but even in 
the public mind the work of preaching is that which 
is primarily associated with the Minister. Large 
numbers of men have indeed gone no farther, unwisely 
supposing that if this ministry be ably fulfilled they 
need no other. Still, the emphasis laid upon preach- 
ing, though often to the disparagement of the offices 
of Kingship and Priesthood, is not misplaced, for 
it has the support not only of Scripture, a large part 
of which is taken up with sermons and letters of 
prophets, but of Christ Himself, who in the mind 
of His contemporaries was preeminently a Preacher, 
the Prophet, spoken of long before by Moses. And 
here, before going further, it may be well to explain 
what we understand by the word Prophet. We take 
it in two senses, that expressed by the Hebrew &PD3 
(navee) and that by the Greek 7tpocp?]rri^. The former 
word, which appears to be derived from a root mean- 
ing " to bubble over" indicates the Prophet as one 
charged with divine thoughts which he cannot refrain 
from expressing, as the writer of Psalm XLV. speaks 
of his bubbling over with the glorious subject which 
God had put in his heart. The latter rather signifies 
one who speaks for another — God's spokesman or 
interpreter. The consideration of what is involved 
in the Greek term we shall postpone to the next 
address, simply occupying ourselves for the present 
with that conception which is certainly primary, that 



20 The Ministry of "the Man." 

of inspiration. It may be convenient to divide what 
we have to say into four parts : (a) The Call, (b) The 
Faith, (c) The Labor, {d) The Power. 

(a) The Prophefs Call. 

We need spend no time in proving that Christ is 
the Prophet, the Divine K'DJ. He, as St. Matthew 
tells us (xiii. 35), fulfilled the words foretold of the 
Messiah that He should not only open His mouth in 
parables, but declare (literally, bubble up, boil over) 
hard sentences of God. He speaks because He must 
speak. Being the very Word of God, the Divine 
Word is in His heart "asa burning fire shut up in 
His bones, so that He is weary of forbearing and 
cannot stay ' ' ( Jer. xx. 9) . And yet He does stay 
year after year, even for thirty years, till the call of 
His Father is heard in the summons of the Baptist. 
He does stay, though He knows His ministry of 
preaching will be of the shortest, barely three years. 
This Self-restraint will appear the more remarkable 
if we suppose with some that when He went up to 
the Temple for the first time, at the age of twelve, 
He received not only a larger conception of the 
work of Redemption than had been possible before, 
considering the perfect Humanity of His human 
mind, but also a new Divine impulse. But here we 
touch a mystery before which silence is the most fit- 
ting attitude, and neither the narrative nor our admira- 
tion of our Lord's patient waiting demands anything 



The Prophet's Call. 21 

more than that the occasion of seeing His Father's 
House for the first time with human eyes supplied its 
own inspiration. 

The return to the cottage at Nazareth has often been 
noticed as a singular illustration of filial obedience ; 
but how can we speak of His silence when He reached 
it ! Only a little imagination is necessary for us to 
realize how formal and barren the weekly teaching at 
Nazareth was ; how dry, dull, and dead it must have 
seemed to the Life as He sat and listened to it ! 
And a recollection of that scene which St. Luke gives 
us (iv. 29) on the occasion of His first sermon there 
will at once remind us how great was the need 
of living teaching. How impatient even a saintly 
prophet would have been when he measured the crying 
necessity with the manner in which men feigned to 
supply it ! And yet for eighteen years, for nearly a 
thousand Sabbaths, He sat as a patient listener, with 
the sorrows not of Nazareth only, but of a world, on 
His heart ! What an illustration of the greatly 
needed warning of St. Paul, " The spirits of the 
prophets are subject unto the prophets ! " But when 
the call was heard He at once answered it, and elec- 
trified even a world taken captive by the powerful 
preaching of the Baptist with words spoken " as 
never man spake." 

From His example, then, we learn that neither an 
ardent love of souls, nor a knowledge of that which 
will save them or of their sore need, is of itself 
sufficient for so great an undertaking as the work 



22 The Ministry of " the Man. ' ' 

of a prophet. There must be a Call. So we are 
asked before we are sent, " Do you think you are 
truly called ? " Granted that you have what is indis- 
pensable — a love of souls ; granted that you have a firm 
conviction of the certainty of those truths you must 
preach — are there any indications that the time has 
come for the exercise of your ministry ? The Bap- 
tist's preaching summoned Christ from the seclusion 
of Nazareth. What voice has persuaded you to leave 
the privacy of your own home and come before men 
as a Prophet of the Lord? Is it that of your Bishop 
bidding you tarry no longer, that of some devout 
servant of God, like Ananias, telling you that the 
time is come when you must give your witness for 
Christ and His kingdom ? x Or is it some spiritual 
movement, the banding of clergy and workers together 
for foreign service, which you feel impelled to join ? 2 
All or any of these may be indications of the voice 
of God saying to you as to Amos, " Go prophesy 
unto My people " (Amos vii. 15). It will be your 
steadfast assurance of this that can alone give you 
courage to meet its difficulties. 

(b) The Prophefs Faith. 

Our Master and Leader not only points by His ex- 
ample the necessity of a call, but, further, the neces- 
sity of a patient, waiting faith. Faith is the attitude 
of one waiting upon another ; of one who originates 
1 Acts ix. 15, 16. 2 Acts xiii. 2. 






The Prophet's Faith. 23 

nothing and initiates nothing, but whose whole life 
is one of reception. This, strange though it seems 
to us when we think of His perfect Godhead, is the 
life of Christ. He lives " by the Father " (St. John 
vi. 57). He is ever the Eternal Son, and " the Son 
can do nothing of Himself " (St. John v. 19). But 
this mysterious aspect of our Lord's life comes out 
in a still more striking way when looked at in the 
light of His own words about His Preaching. Here, 
in the estimate of the world, a man is nothing if he 
is not original, but our Lord, " the wisdom of God " 
(1 Cor. i. 24), disclaims all originality. 

" My doctrine is not Mine but His that sent Me " 
(St. John vii. 16). 

"As My Father hath taught Me I speak these 
things " (St. John viii. 28). 

" I speak that which I have seen with My Father " 
(St. John viii. 38). 

" I speak to the world those things which I have 
heard of Him " (St. John viii. 26). 

Yes, " the Word was God " ; but also " the Word 
was towards God" (St. John i. 1). His Face ever 
set that way, His Ear " wakened morning by morning 
to hear as the learned " (Isa. 1. 4). So, too, He is 
described as "the Faithful Witness" (Rev. i. 5), 
speaking of that which He had seen and heard and 
confining Himself strictly to it. So His Preaching 
is not a clearly reasoned out argument — it may be 
said He never argues — but rather a description of 
something seen, as in the Parables, or a testimony to 



24 The Ministry of " the Man:' 

something heard, as in the denunciations of the Phari- 
sees and the reproaches of the Jews. And this atti- 
tude of faith which He claimed for Himself He also 
claimed for His disciples. " We speak," He said to 
Nicodemus, " that we do know and testify that we 
have seen." x Hence the certainty of the Apostolic 
preaching. They did not speak as though they were 
making probable guesses at the Truth, but as men who 
were as certain of the truth they taught as of their 
own existence. People seem to miss this character- 
istic in modern preaching. So much has been well 
said and written about the intellectual side of sermon 
preparation that the attitude of faith in preaching 
has been somewhat lost sight of. Bishop Phillips 
Brooks, however, speaks clearly enough. " The mat- 
ter of Christian Preaching," he writes in his lectures, 
" must be a message given to us for transmission, but 
yet a message which we cannot transmit until it has 
entered into our own experience and we can give our 
own testimony of its spiritual power. " 

So, too, another writer : " We must have seen and 
felt in the study before we speak in the congrega- 
tion." 

So John Owen says : " No man preaches his sermon 
well to others if he doth not preach it to his own 
heart." 

So the Bishop of Durham: "Be real, do not 
teach beyond your experience, hold your tongue 
rather than say more than you believe." 
1 St. John iii. n. 



Limitations. 25 

So, too, the Bishop of Newcastle has said that 
11 no one could preach with power unless he had 
realized that he spoke as the recipient of a reve- 
lation which, not in the abstract, but as a matter 
of personal experience, he was to communicate to 
others." 

Two difficulties at once occur to the mind. If 
this be so, then it is plain, in any case during the 
first ten years of our ministry, that we must be limited 
in the subjects on which we can speak. Yes, for 
preaching, but not for teaching. We teach all that 
the Church gives us to teach, but we preach only that 
which we ourselves know. For the present we say no 
more, as the distinction will be naturally dwelt upon 
in the second division of the subject. But this 
limitation should not distress us. " Do not be afraid 
to acknowledge," writes the Bishop of Ripon, " that 
there are some matters which as yet are beyond your 
range. It requires some courage to confess this, but 
if truthfulness be our rule, there may be times when 
this course will be the only one open to us." Let 
us rather recognize its necessity, for it is surely true 
that in preaching, into which feeling largely enters, 
we imperil any truth the spiritual value of which 
we are not ourselves convinced. Our people quickly 
gather whether, for example, in our argument for 
belief in the Grace of the Sacraments or our Lord's 
atoning work, we really feel that which we are stating. 

Another difficulty which this view presents is that 
involved in the choice of a subject for our Sunday's 



26 The Ministry of " the Man:' 

sermon. The temptation to choose instead of to 
seek what may be given is sometimes almost irresist- 
ible. We feel as though we should be wasting time 
in seeking God's message elsewhere than in the 
Epistle or Gospel for the Sunday. And yet such a 
formal method is nothing less than the abdication of 
the preacher's office for that of the teacher. It is 
essential to the work of the former that it should be 
characterized by spontaneity and freedom. 

" If any one inquire of me, c How shall I obtain 
the most proper text ? ' " writes one who exercised 
an extraordinary spiritual influence over the mind of 
the great middle class, " I should answer, ' Cry to 
God for it.' " His own experience he relates in the 
following striking words : ■ 

" We tarry at Jerusalem till power is given. I con- 
fess that I frequently sit hour after hour praying and 
waiting for a subject, and that this is the main part of 
my study. Much hard labour have I spent in manipu- 
lating topics, ruminating upon points of doctrine, 
making skeletons out of verses and then burying every 
bone of them in the catacombs of oblivion, sailing on 
and on over leagues of broken water till I see the red 
lights and make sail to the desired haven. I believe 
that almost any Saturday in my life I make enough 
outlines of sermons, if I felt at liberty to preach 
them, to last me for a month, but I no more dare use 
them than an honest mariner would run to shore with 
a cargo of contraband goods. These flit before the 

? " Lectures to My Students," by C. H. Spurgeon, p. 90. 



The Message a Gift. 2J 

mind, one after another, like images passing across 
the photographer's lens, but until the mind is like 
the sensitive plate which retains the picture, the sub- 
jects are valueless to us. Wait for the elect word, even 
if you have to wait within an hour of the service." 

It may be said that Mr. Spurgeon's experience is 
no guide for us, as he was without our Prayer Book 
and without that Church instinct which leads us to 
feel with the Church in her appointed weekly mes- 
sages. But it should be remembered we are not 
basing our teaching upon his words, but only using 
them as an illustration of that faith which seems to 
many to be so wanting in sermons. " These young 
men," said a sister of the Church who has had a 
somewhat large experience in listening to sermons, 
" seem to be without that sense of a message to de- 
liver which is so characteristic of ," naming the 

Rector of one of the most prominent churches in New 
York. It may be that on some Sundays all that we can 
do is to teach; we have no message to deliver. If 
that be the case, let us recognize the fact, and not at- 
tempt a sermon when all we can give is an instruction. 
Or, it may be that on some occasions we shall have to 
wait a long time till the fire kindles, and then, under 
its stimulating warmth, write far into the early morn- 
ing. Let us not fear to give up rest and strength for 
that inspiration which is not only life to our people, 
but life to ourselves. Let me give a simple illustra- 
tion of its power. 

Lady Martin describes how .Bishop Patteson hav- 



28 The Ministry of "the Man." 

ing promised to preach in one of the churches in 
Auckland, sat down on the Wednesday before the 
Sunday to make his preparation. The subject was 
chosen, the work in fair progress, when, to her as- 
tonishment, she saw " sheet after sheet, which had 
been written in his neat, clear hand as though the 
thoughts flowed on without effort, flung into the fire. 
' I can't write,' was said again and again, and the 
work put by for another day. At last on Saturday 
morning he walked up to the parsonage to make his 
excuses. Happily, Dr. Maunsell would not let him 
off, so on Sunday the Bishop, without any notes or 
sermons, spoke to us out of the fulness of his heart 
about the Mission Work, of its encouragements and its 
difficulties." The effect produced was indescribable 
and ineffaceable, and no one who heard it could doubt 
that that was the message God had given him to speak 
to the people. 

This witness might be multiplied. The writer 
himself well remembers the extraordinary power of 
an address given to clergy by a great preacher who 
introduced it by saying that he should not give what 
he had prepared but what he had received that 
morning during the celebration of the Eucharist. 
When we hear such we feel that prophets are still 
amongst us, and, further, that ' t Prophecy is the su- 
preme want of the age." If it be asked where the 
prophets gain their message, it may be answered that 
" in the secret of God's Presence, under the guid- 
ance of the fellowship-giving Spirit, by prayer and 



The Prophet's Labor. 29 

meditation, through self-emptying and self-efface- 
ment, they will see that sight, and hear those voices, 
and gain the germs of that personal holiness which 
will prove a lasting strength for their after-ministry 
of preaching. * Visio Dei virtus hominutnS " * 

(e) The Prophet's Labor. 

This "faith " by which the message is received is 
not the only necessity for a successful fulfilment of 
the Prophetic Office. There have been indeed many 
masters in the life of faith who have yet failed to 
impress their message upon the minds of the people. 
Like those who spake with tongues in the early 
Christian assemblies, they have moved men by their 
devotion rather than by their words ; they needed an 
interpreter. 

Turning to Him whose example we place before 
us as our model, we find this witness, " the common 
people heard Him gladly." That which He had 
received from the Father He made plain to the 
people. This He was enabled to do because He 
knew and loved them. Living as one of themselves 
for thirty years, acquainted with all their ways, inter- 
ested in all their pursuits, He was enabled to clothe 
the divine thought in a dress familiar to His hearers. 
And yet, whilst His preaching was essentially popular, 
it was, we need hardly say, never wanting in that 

1 " A Few Thoughts on the Best Methods of Preparation 
for the Work of the Preacher," by Rev. Herbert James. 



30 The Ministry of "the Man" 

dignity which the subject demanded. The reverence 
due to the majesty of Divine Truth was not only 
preserved, but deepened. We cannot conceive of 
such a condescension as would degrade the truth to 
the level of His hearers. But with this reserve how 
freely He draws upon the life He knew for illustra- 
tions ! None could be wearied with sermons often 
thrown into the form of simple stories which had 
for their coloring and background the circumstances 
and events of their own daily life. All would have 
the opportunity of understanding truths which were 
pointed by allusions to ploughing, sowing, and reap- 
ing, to fishing and commercial pursuits, and explained 
by such simple objects as coins and pearls, wine-skins 
and leaven, lamps and lamp-stands. The shepherd 
with the lost sheep in his arms, the bride with her 
recovered heirloom, the father banqueting his prodi- 
gal son, must have been irresistibly fascinating to 
those who were accustomed to hear dry dissertations 
on some unimportant point of the Mosaic Law. But 
all this meant labor which our Lord willingly be- 
stowed. Though He always saw the Father's Face 
and heard His words, He never lost sight of the 
habits of the people He taught. His quick observa- 
tion noticed even the games of the children and how 
they were spoiled by a churlish want of sympathy. 
And what He saw He treasured up that He might 
draw His hearers with " the cords of a man." " It 
was as man that Christ led men to God. No real 
leadership of the people except that which comes as 



Necessity of Labor. 31 

the leadership of the Incarnation came by a thorough 
entrance into the lot of those one has to lead." 

So, too, with us. " Without a study of men our 
knowledge of God is largely barren. A physician 
may be a perfect chemist, he may have mastered all 
the remedies God has given, but cui bono unless he 
have studied disease, its causes and complications? 
The streets and homes of a great town are the book- 
shelves for the knowledge of man, the people are our 
living volumes. And if we fail to study them rever- 
ently and lovingly, all our printed books will be hard 
to understand, and our preaching, however eloquent, 
will beat the air. Among the hearts of our parish 
we learn, too, the language of the people and all 
that underlies language. We grow to think along- 
side of them, to understand the thoughts they cannot 
express." r Yes, the vision of God is given that we 
may tell others what we have seen. And it is our 
part, when we have received, to see that it is prop- 
erly expressed. As the missionary in a foreign land 
is always seeking to know not only the language 
but the thought of his people, and only gains it 
after much labor, so we, too, must familiarize our- 
selves not only with their outward life, their busi- 
ness, their trades, and their homes, but with the 
way in which they look at things. At first we shall 
make but slow progress, learning a word here and 
there, but not the grammar; but afterwards, with 
practice, we shall be able to make a fair translation. 

1 " The Parish Priest of the Town," the Bishop of Truro. 



32 The Ministry of "the Man." 

It is not easy. Mr. Spurgeon probably found it less 
difficult than we should, and yet he says, "Go up 
to his level if he is a poor man, go down to his 
understanding if he is an educated one. There is 
more going up in being plain to the illiterate than 
there is in being refined for the polite. At any rate, 
it is the more difficult of the two and most like the 
Saviour's mode of speech." "I preached early to 
villagers," writes William Jay, " and long experience 
teaches me what is required in addressing them. 
The minds of rustics are not inaccessible, but you 
must take the trouble to find the avenues to them." 
Nothing for the preacher can take the place of fre- 
quent intercourse with his people, for "he is the 
best preacher who has the best knowledge of human 
nature, not of the philosophy of mind studied in 
the abstract, but of the wants, the susceptibilities, 
the temptations, the warnings, the shifts, of indi- 
vidual minds in regard to religion." 

(d) The Prophefs Power. 

We have considered three important elements in 
that part of the prophet's work expressed in the 
word R*OJ. They are concerned with the prepara- 
tion. We now look at the power behind the work 
and present with it to its close. We ask what is the 
secret of that indefinable power " which may be felt 
rather than described or analyzed ; which resides 
in or permeates a man's whole circle of activities; 



The Prophet's Power. 33 

which cannot be localized, cannot be identified 
exclusively with one of them ; which is 

traced, perchance, in the very expression of the 
countenance, yet the countenance is too coarse an 
organ to do it justice ; which just asserts its presence, 
but its presence is too volatile to admit of being 
seized and measured; brought by art or language 
fairly within the compass of our comprehension" — 
that power, all too rare, which is sometimes spoken 
of under the name of unction? 

If we ask Him, our Leader and Example, whether 
here, too, we may find guidance, whether there is 
any secret power in His life which we may share 
with Him, He points us to what is recorded of His 
first sermon in Nazareth. When He returned to His 
own home as a Prophet of a great and increasing 
reputation, as one able to work signs and wonders, 
His old companions expected to see some exhibition 
of His miraculous gifts or at least some assertion of 
personal authority. He would stand forth amongst 
them, they thought, as one whose abilities and gifts 
reflected credit upon their town. But, on the con- 
trary, the first words disclaim any original power. 
" The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He 
hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor 
. . . to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. ' ' 
Whatever disappointment may have been felt at the 
choice of His text, yet so manifest and perfectly 
evident was it to all that He stood forth as its 
personal embodiment, that " the eyes of all were 
3 



34 The Ministry of " the Man." 

fastened upon Him." Wherever this new power is 
revealed it at once arrests attention. The unction 
of the Holy Ghost compels, for a time at least, the 
homage of man's instinctive reverence. 

It would be impossible to set forth with any clear- 
ness the relation of the Holy Ghost to the Incarnate 
Son, nor is it necessary. We need only to be reminded 
of His perpetual Presence with our Lord in His Min- 
istry of Preaching and of the consequent necessity 
of our fellowship with Him. For, as Canon New- 
bolt says, " if we are ever to get out our message, if 
we are ever to do our work in the world outside, the 
Holy Spirit must help us to do it. For . 
here is the only Force which has ever been able suc- 
cessfully to grapple with the power of the passions." ■ 
So, too, in the same spirit, Bishop Lightfoot asks, 
" What claims do the most brilliant mathematical 
faculties or the keenest scholarly instincts give to a 
man to speak with authority on the things of the 
Spirit ? Are we not told, on authority before which 
we bow, that a special faculty is needed for this spe- 
cial knowledge ; that eye hath not seen, and ear hath 
not heard ; that only the Spirit of God — the Spirit 
which He vouchsafes to His sons — knoweth the things 
of God? . . . Believe it, this spiritual faculty is 
an infinitely subtle and delicate mechanism. . . . 
Nothing — not the highest intellectual gains — can 
compensate you for its injury or its loss." 

But for this there must be the preparation of a life 
1 " Speculum Sacerdotum," p. 128. 



Sources of Pozver. 35 

and the immediate preparation of the last few hours 
before preaching. There must be a continuous, cease- 
less development of what has been called the spirit 
faculty, which in the ordinary man is spoken of as 
his conscience, and in the true Christian as spiritual- 
mindedness ; and beside this, which is the ground of 
the indwelling Presence of the Holy Ghost, there 
must be a brave exclusion from the immediate prep- 
aration of all that will lead our hearers to think 
more of the preacher than his subject. The brilliant 
passage which pleased us so well, the striking anec- 
dote, the forcible illustration, these must be remorse- 
lessly cut out unless we conscientiously feel that 
they are necessary for the subject ; for we cannot at 
one and the same time rely upon them and upon the 
Holy Ghost. They are as much out of place as 
Saul's beautiful armor was with David. So, too, as 
regards those coarser helps which men will sometimes 
use — the quiet smoke, the glass of wine. These are 
well enough for the political speaker. He may 
naturally rely upon his favorite stimulant to give 
him quietness and confidence ; for he does not seek 
to touch the hidden, secret springs of conduct, but 
merely to persuade men from one opinion of a 
question to another. The Prophet, on the other 
hand, who is pleading with men to give up what 
they most like and to take up what they most fear, 
finds all these carnal weapons rather hindrances than 
helps. He goes to his work conscious of " weak- 
ness, fear, and much trembling," and puts aside the 



36 The Ministry of " the Man:' 

enticing words of man's wisdom lest the faith of his 
hearers should stand in the wisdom of men rather 
than in the power of God. And he finds that he is 
sometimes obliged to deny the body in order that the 
coarser parts of his nature may not obscure the mes- 
sage that is seeking to find an entrance. One who 
was present well remembers Archbishop Benson ex- 
cusing himself to his hostess for his light breakfast 
on the ground that he was going to preach. And of 
" General" Booth it is said that he has given up all 
kinds of sweets, a food he greatly enjoys, in order 
that he may find fuller freedom in speaking. With 
such, whether they speak from manuscript or not, we 
feel we are in the presence of spiritual power. Men 
may not like what is said, may complain of its 
unpractical character, but they are struck with the 
earnestness and spirituality of the tone, and return 
home wishing perhaps that they could believe as the 
preacher evidently does. One practical suggestion 
in conclusion. If this grace of unction is to be 
ours, it must be sought diligently in prayer, and no 
words are more suitable than those of the ancient 
hymn, the " Veni Creator." Dr. Liddon quotes 
with warm approbation the following suggestion : 
" If you make it a rule to say sincerely the first 
verse of the Ordination Hymn every morning with- 
out fail, it will in time do more for you than any 
other prayer I know of, except the Lord's Prayer," 
and adds, " Perhaps fifty years hence, in another 
sphere of existence, some of us will be glad to have 
acted on his advice." 



DEVOTIONS. 
{From " Meditations on the Life of Christ" by Thomas a Kempis.) 

my soul, bless the Lord for His Holy Example in 
the Ministry of Prophesying ! 

1 bless and give Thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, 
Thou good Shepherd and faithful Guardian of Thy 
sheep, for Thy loving care, for Thy salvation of souls, 
and for Thy burning desire to proclaim to the world 
the glad tidings of God's Word. 

O sweet Jesus ! with what diligent care didst Thou go 
about the villages and streets, the towns and fenced 
cities, to convert sinners, to heal the broken-hearted, 
and to grant forgiveness to the truly penitent ! I praise 
and magnify Thee from the very depths of my heart, for 
Thy comforting doctrine, and for Thy fervent preaching 
throughout all Galilee and Judaea, and for Thy glorious 
renown, proclaimed far and wide among the Gentile 
nations. 

O Lord, in Thee the fountain of Eternal Wisdom, the 
Light of Life, and the fulness of all sweetness abound 
and endure forever! "Incline therefore my heart to 
Thy testimonies. " Open mine ear to the words of Thy 
mouth. " Turn away mine eyes lest they behold vanity, 
and quicken Thou me in Thy way." 

Psalm cxix. 97-104. 

Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent. 

Collect after the Veni Creator in " The Ordering of 
Priests" 



III. 



THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OR THE MINISTRY 
OF "THE MAN." 



MEDITATION. 
The Office and Work of a Prophet. 

And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest : for 
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways ; To 
give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of 
their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the 
dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that 
sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into 
the way of peace. — Si. Ltike i. y6-yg. 

''Thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the High- 
(i) est " — So of me, as of John the Baptist, these 

The Call. words were said by the Holy Ghost, unless 
my call were only a fancy, which God forbid. Yes ; 
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee . . . 
and ordained thee a prophet." Long before I could 
speak, even before the Cross was marked on my brow 
in Holy Baptism, my work in life was chosen. So He 
chose the particular age and country in which I should 
be born, my parents, my school, my friends, my college ; 
all, that I might be able to praise Him in the " goodly 
fellowship of the Prophets." Consider, my soul, into how 
high a dignity and to how weighty an office and charge 
thou art called ! 

"To prepare His ways" — He seeks to come and take 

(2) possession of His kingdom. The deep val- 

The "Work. i e y S m ust be filled in with the knowledge 

of His love, the lofty and proud mountains and hills 

must be brought low by repentance, the crooked paths 



Meditation. 41 

must be made straight by a clear denunciation of the 
hidden things of dishonesty, the rough places must be 
made smooth by gentle and wise counsels, for the King 
is coming. " Lift up thy voice, then, thou Prophet of the 
Highest." 

11 To give knowledge of salvation unto His people for 
the remission of sins " — To make all men know that 
there is a deliverance in Jesus Christ from the paralysis 
of sin, the tyranny of bad habits, the shame of an un- 
quiet conscience ; that there is an entrance into the deep 
Peace of God which passeth all understanding. 

Ah, how I have wandered from this plain, simple 
duty, giving peace where there was no peace and 
moral precepts instead of saving truths ! 

"The tender mercy of God whereby the Day Spring 
(3) from on high hath visited us" — How 

The Ground, severe a task lies before me ! How is it 
possible to execute it? Only by resting on the assur- 
ance of the Divine compassion and tenderness ; only 
by returning again and again to the certainty of the 
historic fact that the Day Spring has visited us. My 
prophetic work rests on a Fact, the Love of God testi- 
fied by the Incarnation of His only begotten Son. 

To believe afresh in the dignity of preaching ; so to 

preach that Christ may be glorified and 
Resolution. v ' J b c 

men be led to feel the power of the remis- 
sion of sins. 



III. 



THE PROPHETIC OFFICE OR THE MINISTRY 
OF "THE MAN." 

The Teacher, 

We have spoken of that side of the prophetic work 
which is expressed by the Hebrew N^J, that side 
which is characterized by preaching rather than teach- 
ing, that which is chiefly illustrated by the work of 
the prophets of the Old Testament. We now turn to 
consider the work which is expressed by the Greek 
7tpocpj]TT]S, a word which we are told properly means 
" one who speaks for another, especially one who 
speaks for God and interprets His will for man." 
Now, though this word of course includes that of 
preaching, yet its primary signification, as well as 
that description of it which St. Paul gives in the 
Epistle to the Corinthians, suggests, if it does 
not directly imply, something more formal and 
less spontaneous, something more deliberate and 
less urgent and vehement. "He that prophesieth 
speaketh unto men to edification"; 1 i.e., to the 
building up of character, a work requiring patience 
and time. So, again, whilst preaching is certainly 
1 i Cor. xiv. 3. 



The Teacher. 43 

one great and effective means for influencing and 
converting the unbeliever, the prophesying St. Paul 
speaks of "serveth not for them that believe not, but 
for them which believe." r Its chief purpose is that 
" all may learn and all may be comforted." 2 

It is not easy now to discriminate clearly and fully 
between these two duties; so much of teaching is 
preaching, and, vice versa, much of preaching is teach- 
ing. And yet in mission work the two are sharply 
distinguished, the sermon having quite a different 
character from that of the instruction which follows 
it. Perhaps we may fairly say that in preaching, 
the element of persuasion is the dominating one ; in 
teaching, that of instruction ; in the one the preacher 
seeks to persuade the will, in the other to convince 
the mind. The Scripture recognizes both. Our 
Blessed Lord taught as well as preached (St. Matt. xi. 
1) ; so, too, His disciples (Acts v. 42). It is possible 
that in the first days, as the gifts necessary for the one 
or the other were developed, there were some who con- 
fined themselves to preaching and became " evangel- 
ists" (Eph. iv. n), as others gave themselves up to 
teaching and became " teachers." But this useful 
division was no longer everywhere possible when the 
work multiplied ; and as all congregations of believers 
needed both ministrations, priests were obliged to 
teach as well as preach. The consequence of this 
was that the distinctive characteristics of these really 
separate functions became lost, and sermons became 
1 1 Cor. xiv. 22. 2 1 Cor. xiv. 31. 



44 The Ministry of " the Man" 

instructions and instructions sermons. In our own 
branch of Christ's Church it has been said that though 
" the cry of the time is for more effective preaching, 
the need of our time is more effective teaching." * 

If we are inclined to believe that there is more 
truth in the cry of the times than the writer credits 
it with, it is not on the ground that the Church 
has too much effective teaching. There can be no 
question that our people do need to be taught with 
increasing clearness the great doctrines of the Faith, 
but it is equally clear that they need from time to 
time, much more frequently than once in five years, 
as is suggested by the periods marked for holding a 
mission, to be stimulated and braced up by such 
effective preaching as is characteristic of a mission. 
The average Anglican sermon, whether preached in 
England or America, is an instruction rather than a 
sermon. Its aim is rather to instruct the congrega- 
tion in some ethical or doctrinal truth than to per- 
suade them to practise it. It is usually singularly 
wanting in the power of a strong appeal. There is 
little or no attempt to stir the emotions — little or no 
suggestion of a struggle on the part of the preacher 
with unwilling minds. The opening and the close 
are alike calm and deliberative. The teaching is 
given step by step, line by line, precept by precept, 
quietly, orderly, and clearly, and the spirit running 
through it is that of the words " He that hath ears 

1 Rev. Herbert James: "A Few Thoughts on the Best 
Methods of Preparation for the \York of the Preacher." 



Teachers and Evangelists. 45 

to hear, let him hear." Such teaching has not been 
without its effect. Anglican Churchmen are, we 
believe, characterized by just those qualities which 
we should expect such teaching to produce. They are 
morally stronger and doctrinally sounder than any 
other Christians ; but is there not a want of zeal, 
activity, and missionary enthusiasm which some small 
sects have in larger measure ? And, if so, is not 
this partly due to the lack of inspiration and stimu- 
lus in our sermons and addresses ? Sectarianism will, 
we believe, always have a place amongst us so long 
as the cry for " effective preaching " is only partially 
answered. 

But whilst we admit this we are far from saying 
that there is no occasion to lay stress on the neces- 
sity of " effective teaching." We need " teachers " 
as well as "evangelists." And we believe that as 
this need is more widely recognized, we shall find 
that the Church will be as careful to train her clergy 
in " didactics " as she has been in "dogmatics." 
Churches will be as closely associated with semina- 
ries as model schools are with training colleges, and 
opportunity will be given to the candidate for Holy 
Orders to learn practically under good guidance how 
to catechise, instruct confirmation candidates, and 
conduct Bible classes. 

In all this she will find her continuous inspiration 
in Him, the great Teacher of mankind, for it is need- 
less to say that all, and more than all, we hope to find 
in a good teacher we find in Him. Is it " an ample 



46 The Ministry of "the Man." 

and accurate knowledge of the thing taught " ? This 
of course He, the Truth, the very Word of God, neces- 
sarily had. Is it sympathy ? No one ever taught 
with such infinite compassion for his scholars as He 
did, nor was there any so patient with dulness or 
ignorance. Is it the power of description, of illus- 
trating an abstract truth with such pictures as the 
unlearned can understand ? The Parables are a per- 
petual witness to this. 

There is the same perfection in the method of His 
teaching. Whilst all is orderly and systematic and 
so easily remembered, yet it is never so formal as to 
be dull. Again and again the story is lighted up by 
a direct appeal such as appears in the Parable of the 
Vineyard in which our Lord seems to pause for an- 
swer, "What therefore shall the Lord of the vine- 
yard do unto them ? ' ' And when He Himself answers 
for them, they cry out, " God forbid ! ' ' showing how 
deeply the teaching had gone home. 

But a whole book might be written on our Lord as 
Teacher, His principles and methods. We shall not 
attempt anything further than the consideration of 
those two essentials of good teaching which we are 
told marked His ministry, and the spirit which per- 
meated it : 

T)ie first, the authority with which it was invested. 
" He taught as One having authority and not as the 
Scribes" (St. Matt. vii. 29). 

The second, the love of the truth. " We know that 
Thou art true and teachest the way of God in truth. 



The Prophet's Authority. 47 

Neither carest Thou for any man, for Thou regardest 
not the person of men " (St. Matt. xxii. 16). 
The spirit that marked it. His sympathy. 

(7) The Prophet's Authority. 

First, His authoritativeness. " He taught them as 
One having authority and not as the Scribes." This 
was what men said one to another as they tried to 
describe that which struck them most in the manner 
of His speaking. This authority was twofold, (a) 
The authority of mission, (b) The authority of the 
message. 

(a) The Authority of Mission. 

We think it strange that the very Word of God, of 
one substance with the Father, by Whom all things 
were made, should refer to Another rather than to 
Himself for the truth of His words and actions, 
that He should come before men in the Name 
of Another rather than His Own Name. And yet 
this was His invariable practice. When the Jews 
publicly challenged His authority, asking Him by 
what authority He cleansed the Temple, He did not 
reply, as He might have done, " By My own, for I 
am Lord of the Temple," but referred them to the 
Authority of the Father, with which He was plainly 
invested by the testimony of the Baptist, whose com- 
mission they must either recognize as divine or 
ignore to their own great danger. So, too, when 



48 The Ministry of " the Man!' 

they questioned His teaching, He replied by saying, 
" My teaching is not Mine, but His that sent Me." 
He knew that this constant reference to Another as 
His witness was disagreeable to men who were accus- 
tomed to receive honor one of another, and there- 
fore could not understand the virtue of humility; 
but the attitude of deference and ready obedience 
to a divinely commissioned Prophet was essential to 
faith, whilst the pleasure they took in listening to 
any one who would stand forth in his own name was 
one that it was impossible for Him to encourage. 
(St. John v. 43-44). 

It is true that now and again there flashed forth 
from His countenance an authority which overawed 
His enemies and caused them to fall backwards, but 
this He rarely used ; His Father's Name, His Father's 
Authority, were always prominently forward. 

(b) The Authority of the Message. 

This great Authority with which our Lord was in- 
vested was never arbitrarily used. It never gave its 
support to any truth that failed to carry with it its 
own authority. And herein it differed from the 
authority of the Scribes and Pharisees. They had 
an authority, that of the Elders of the Church, as 
they would have said in the language of to-day, 
and in the name of that authority they asked why 
Christ allowed His disciples to break the Church 
tradition of washing before eating, of strictly ob- 



Characteristics of Authority, 49 

serving the Sabbath. But men felt that authority 
was a bondage, first, because it was human, being 
founded on the passing opinion of men rather than 
on the unchangeable Word of God ; secondly, because 
it was urged in support of trifling ceremonies which 
made no appeal to the conscience. Men felt as they 
heard it presented to them that it was no real author- 
ity, for it carried no conviction with it, neither in the 
tone of the voice that pressed it nor in the subject 
in behalf of which it was urged. The Authority of 
Chirst was entirely different. Whether men liked it 
or not, they felt compelled to respect it. They 
stood either silent and abashed before it, or they 
welcomed it with the feeling that " never man spake 
like this man." It was as refreshing as the other 
was wearisome, as majestic as the other was puerile. 
Now, the Prophet who would teach as his Master 
taught must teach as one " having authority " ; in 
other words, as one commissioned as a herald sent to 
announce good tidings or as an ambassador charged to 
explain the conditions of peace. He always remem- 
bers that Authority was given him to preach the Word 
of God, that he has neither the right to occupy the 
pulpit nor to wear the stole, the badge of his author- 
ity, except by virtue of his commission. He comes 
before his people as one sent, and, in spite of the 
expressed dislike of ecclesiastical authority, men ac- 
cept and respect it. "It often happens," writes 
the Bishop of Ripon, " that what a clergyman says 
is invested with a weight of authority far higher than 
4 



50 The Ministry of "the Man." 

it merits. ' I heard it in Church' is with some as 
sufficient for faith as i I read it in print ' is for 
others." And if he is seen to be wanting in due 
regard for it, if he is familiar and careless in speech 
and manner, if he regards his office as teacher or 
preacher as having nothing more in it than that which 
he himself gives to it, men quickly perceive the 
difference. "Remember," said Bishop Lightfoot 
in a charge to candidates for ordination, " that you 
are ambassadors, and ... if you forget that you 
are ambassadors your work will be feeble, flaccid, 
listless, and inefficient, because nerveless and sinew- 
less." 

" We are the leaders of the people," writes Bishop 
Phillips Brooks. " Woe to our preaching if in any 
feeble, false humility we abdicate that place ! The 
people pass us by and pity us if they see us standing 
in our pulpits saying, ' W T e know nothing particular 
about these things whereof we preach ; we have no 
authority ; only come here and we will tell you what 
we think and you shall tell us what you think, and 
so perhaps together we can strike out a little light.' 
That is not preaching. There has been pulpit talk 
like that, and men have passed it by and hurried 
on to find some one who at least pretended to tell 
them the will of God." 

Surely it is only the common gossip about ser- 
mons and instructions, together with the degradation 
of preaching that has naturally followed in the wake 
of an irregular ministry, that could lead any one 



Results of A uthority. 5 1 

to feel that he could dispense with this Divine 
Authority. For though " required for the effective 
discharge of such grave and sacred duties as are 
involved in the celebration of the Holy Sacrament 
and in dealing with the consciences of men, it is," 
writes Canon Liddon, " specially required in the 
pulpit. A belief in his call and commission from 
Christ can alone make his pulpit ministrations 
tolerable to a man of common sense and modesty. 
The more a man knows of God, of the human 
soul, of the vast range of spiritual truth; the more 
he knows of the attainments, intellectual or moral, 
of those around him and of his own far-reach- 
ing and radical shortcomings : the more must he 
shrink, if left to himself, from such a part as that of 
enforcing spiritual truths — even the truths of which 
he is most certain — upon a large assemblage of his 
fellowmen. . . . All that is best, if I may so 
say, in his natural, as still more in his regenerate 
man, conspires to bid him keep in the background 
among his fellows and to hold his peace. But a 
necessity is laid upon him from heaven which con- 
tinually does violence to this inclination. The 
never-forgotten consciousness of the mission which 
he has received whispers to him, as of old to the 
prophet by the river of Chebar, that he may not if he 
would be silent. There may be many better men 
unordained than he; but still his responsibilities are 
not theirs." 

So he comes to men with that majestic preface, 



52 The Ministry of " the Man:' 

the tremendous significance of which is often missed, 
" In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of 
the Holy Ghost," and, as he makes it, not seldom 
uses either secretly or openly, as the custom of the 
Church in which he officiates dictates, that divine 
symbol which implies, with its remorseless crossing 
out of the letter I, that he will, by God's help, leave 
out everything that would lead men to think more of 
his own name than of the Sacred Name, that he will 
discourage to the utmost any talk among his people 
that suggests that he is anything more than " the 
Voice of one crying in the wilderness.'' 1 

For how can he put his own name into competition 
with the Sacred Name ! How can he make a solemn 
profession of preaching or teaching in God's Name 
when all the time he is seeking to establish his 
own name ! Yes, this sense of a divine authority so 
far from leading to self-assertion or self-exaltation 
rather urges such self-abnegation as characterizes the 
faithful ambassador who would be ashamed to find 
that the mission with which he had been entrusted 
was forgotten in the admiration men bestowed on 
the diplomatic manner in which he had handled it. 

This thought naturally leads to the second element 
of Christ's authority — the authority of the message. 
The Prophet's authority gives him no claim to be an 
authoritative guide on any subject he may desire. 
" There is nothing in our quality as preachers that 
gives us any claim to be authoritative guides to men 
in politics, education, or science. On one thing 



The Authoritative Message. 53 

alone may we speak with authority, and that is the 
will of God." This is revealed to us in the mind 
of the Catholic Church as expressed in the Holy 
Scriptures of the Catholic Creeds. And if we seek 
for further guidance as to the Truth we are empowered 
to give our people, we find it in our Prayer Book. 

Now, just as in preaching it is necessary that we 
have an inner conviction of the truth of our mes- 
sage, as though we had seen its truth or heard it at 
God's mouth, so in teaching we must have an equally 
certain conviction that the message given to us by 
the Church is true. " If, though there be many 
things which perplex, you do not with your whole 
heart accept the written Bible as God's law of life 
and death to men," writes the late Bishop of Ely, 
" you cannot be a faithful dispenser of the Word of 
God." 

And so also we may add, if, though there be state- 
ments here and there which perplex you, you do not 
with your whole heart accept the teaching of the 
Prayer Book as God's will for the Church of England 
and the Church in America, you cannot give your 
faithful diligence always to minister the Doctrine of 
Christ as this Church hath received. It may be 
asked here, " Is this possible ? If Plato is right in 
saying that " seven years' silent inquiry are required 
by a man to learn a truth in," then surely a lifetime 
is necessary for learning and knowing all the truths of 
the Catholic Faith as enshrined in the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer. Must we not then make a selection and 



54 The Ministry of " the Man." 

confine our teaching to those truths of which we have 
personal experience ? We have already said that 
something like this must be our rule for preaching 
as distinguished from teaching, but it would be as 
untrue to the conception of teaching as it would be 
false to our commission to teach the whole counsel 
of God if we were to narrow down the dogmatic 
office to those truths only of which we had spiritual 
experience. It is clearly our duty to put forward the 
whole Gospel, " the whole area of its Doctrine, the 
many sides on which it attracts and awes and subdues 
the soul of man — in unabridged, unmutilated com- 
pleteness," and it is equally clear that, for the sake 
of our people, we cannot wait until all has been 
wrought into our life. How, then, can we teach it 
with authority ? Only on the ground that we believe 
our Church to be a living branch of the Body of 
Christ, and the Bible, Catholic Creeds, and the Prayer 
Book to be the authoritative expression of her mind. 
" Instead of reserving our private judgment to be 
called into exercise upon every point of Revelation, 
one by one as circumstances bring these into promi- 
nence, we are asked," writes Bishop Woodford, "to 
apply our judgment once for all to the primary ques- 
tion whether the Church is designed by God to be, 
and so speaks as to be according to that design, our 
guide and instructor; and, having settled this in 
the affirmative, to sit at the feet of the mistress so 
provided and accepted, and receive from her and 
dispense to others the doctrines which she delivers. 



Width of the Message. 55 

Every teacher has to do this, more or less. He 
accepts the conclusions of certain recognized mas- 
ters of the subject he is teaching and gives them to 
the class with an authority greater than that which 
could have been derived from his own personal 
investigation. He is satisfied that the great masters 
are right, and has no wish to go beyond what they 
have laid down." So, also, entirely satisfied with 
the Authority of the Church, the prophetic teacher is 
persuaded that even on those points which he does 
not himself clearly see, she will commend herself to 
others. He has learnt to recognize certain natural 
tendencies of his own mind, evangelical, ecclesiasti- 
cal, or sacramental, and rejoices in a Mistress so 
catholic-minded that whilst she teaches fully that 
which he easily assimilates does not fail to make 
provision for those who have inherited other tradi- 
tions than his own. And it is in teaching thus 
widely that he himself grows in a knowledge larger 
than he could have believed possible, and finds him- 
self rejoicing in certain aspects of the truth which 
were once hard and not quickly discerned. 

The Church's Authority covers a large field of doc- 
trine, and meets every real human need. But this 
does not prevent a certain temptation to prophesy 
" out of our own hearts." On the one hand there are 
those who, like the prophetesses of Ezekiel's time, 
" muffle up the arms of God, so that His judgments 
may not be seen, and blind the eyes and cover the 
heads of those on whom those judgments are about 



56 The Ministry of " the Man." 

to fall," x those who make the Gospel as easy as pos- 
sible to the worldly and luxurious, and so preach a 
hope for the final restoration of all the lost and 
impenitent ; on the other there are those who, out 
of an earnest zeal to restore Catholic discipline, 
lay burdens, and grievous to be borne, upon those 
who are not able to bear them. And with what 
result ? With this, that the authority invoked, being 
found to rest on no adequate grounds, is sensibly 
weakened, and when urged for truths and practices 
taught by the Church finds no full response. We 
may never forget that to use the authority with which 
we are invested in behalf of what is not really au- 
thoritative is to help forward that growing disre- 
spect for all authority which is a part of the inde- 
pendence of our age. 

(2) Devotion to Truth a?id Boldness. 

We pass on now to the second characteristic of our 
Lord's teaching — its devotion to truth and consequent 
boldness. The Apostle, who was best able to under- 
stand the character of his Divine Master, when recall- 
ing, under the power of the Spirit, the two features 
that seemed to sum up His Divine life, spoke of the 
one as Grace, the other as Truth. " He was full of 
Truth" (St. John i. 14). And our Lord not only 
spoke of His Mission as being that of a Witness-Bearer 
to the Truth (St. John xviii. 37), but of Himself as 
1 Ezek. xiii. 18. 



Devotion to Truth. 57 

being the very Truth Itself (St. John xiv. 6) . This 
attitude towards, or rather identification with, the 
Truth had one natural consequence which was felt 
in all His teaching — a fearless indifference to all 
those considerations which so greatly interfere with 
our human statements of the Truth. We are all 
sensitive to certain influences, such as rank, wealth, 
or other social advantages ; and whilst we would not 
willingly trim our conception of the Truth to suit 
the great man who is thinking of becoming one 
of our congregation, whilst we should shrink from 
altering a point in our Bible class lesson on find- 
ing that some Nicodemus had come to listen, we 
might be conscious of his presence and possibly 
think it wise so to modify our teaching that it would 
not be unacceptable. 

It was of course impossible that the Truth could 
be moved by any such thoughts as these. He taught 
the rich as He would teach the poor, the wise as the 
ignorant. The wealth, rank, and position of men 
like Herod, Pilate, Nicodemus, and Simon the 
Pharisee in no way affected the message that He had 
to give them except that the possession of such 
advantages with their corresponding responsibilities 
called for a still clearer and bolder expression of 
the Truth. The severest things He ever said were 
spoken to men who had social privileges. " Go and 
tell that fox Herod." " Go and sell all that thou 
hast and come and follow Me." " Except a man be 
born again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." 



58 The Ministry of " the Man:' 

"Woe unto you Scribes, Pharisees, fools, blind 
guides, hypocrites ! " " Except ye see signs and won- 
ders ye will not believe." These and other like 
expressions were those He used when dealing with 
men who ought to have known better. No wonder 
they felt that He cared nothing for the person of 
men, was entirely indifferent to their position. 

But not only was He markedly independent, as a 
teacher, of the claims of social advantages, but He was 
just as little moved by that which sometimes affects 
us so strongly — the presence of a large congregation. 
It is not of course that we would lower the standard 
of truth, but that in our desire not to miss what we 
consider to be a great opportunity, we may so pre- 
sent a doctrine that it pleases without awakening, 
comforts without warning, and encourages without 
guiding. Not so with the Truth. It was to the 
crowded congregation in the synagogue of Capernaum 
that He addressed those searching words, " Ye seek 
me not because ye saw the signs but because ye did eat 
of the loaves and were filled "jit was to the large 
crowds that followed Him in warm admiration that 
He turned and said, " Whosoever doth not bear his 
own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." 

And His teaching in private, even to His own 
friends, was very stern when occasion demanded. To 
St. Peter, who ventured in overconfident zeal to re- 
buke his Master when He spake of the way of the 
Cross as being the path along which he must go, He 
turned and said, " Get thee behind me, Satan, for 



Boldness. 59 

thou savourest not the things that be of God but 
those that be of men." 

Boldness is not a common virtue. Perhaps it is 
not more easy in these days when it is attacked 
by the insidious enemies of ease, popularity, and 
peace than when it was rewarded by the stake, the 
cross, or the rack. To risk the further curtailment 
of a small income, the absence from Church with all 
the hardness that follows of the principal men in the 
place, the black looks of people you care for, seems 
a small matter only to those who are never called 
upon to experience it. 

Now, our Lord knew that fear would always be a 
danger to His friends, so whilst He says but compara- 
tively little about the wisdom, tact, and gentleness 
necessary for teaching, He constantly warns them 
against cowardice. In His short charge to the Apos- 
tles He reiterates no less than three times the exhor- 
tation " Fear them not " ; and whilst He attaches a 
high reward to an honest and open confession of His 
Truth, connects with any shamefaced denial of it 
the most terrible prospect that can be conceived, that 
of being denied by the only Person whose word will 
T)e of any worth in the last great Assize. (St. Matt, 
x. 26, 28, 31.) 

These counsels were not lost upon the Apostles and 
their disciples. Their preaching is constantly de- 
scribed as marked by an open, fearless boldness, a 
rtapprjGia, an openness of speech which speaks the 
truth without regard to possible consequences. St. 



60 The Ministry of " the Man." 

Stephen, on trial for his life, when there was call for 
every possible caution, ends his sermon with the 
words, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart 
and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your 
fathers did, so do ye " ; and St. Paul concludes ser- 
mons to men who were prejudiced against him with 
such words as " Beware therefore lest that come upon 
you which is spoken of in the prophets, ' Behold, ye 
despisers, and wonder, and perish ' ; or, ' Your blood 
be upon your own heads ; I am clean, from hence- 
forth I will go unto the Gentiles.' " So after three 
years' teaching at Ephesus he could say with all 
sincerity, " I never lowered my sails (ovu v7T8(Trsi- 
Xajdijv) in declaring unto you all the counsel of 
God " (Acts xx. 27). All that God had given him to 
teach, even though he knew that the central thought 
of it was either a stumbling-block or foolishness to 
his audiences, he gave fully and clearly, privately as 
well as publicly. 

Yes, the first teachers knew perfectly well that 
human nature, being proud, resents humiliations, 
and is likely " in its own fashion and way to express 
its roused resentment. . . . They knew that the 
patient to whom they were carrying the medicine* 
that would cure him would often refuse the draught 
and would punish the physician who dared to offer 
it. But they loved man, and they loved and feared 
their God too sincerely and too well, to infuse any 
new ingredients, or to withdraw any of the bitter but 
needful elements of cure. They accepted civil and 



Without Arrogance. 61 

social proscription ; they endured moral and physical 
agony ; they embraced, one after another, with cheerful 
hearts, the very warrants and instruments of their death; 
— because they had counted the cost, and had meas- 
ured too well the greatness of their task and the glories 
of their anticipated eternity, to shrink sensitively back 
at the first symptoms of opposition or difficulty." x 

But though so bold, their boldness was very far 
from that overweening and arrogant confidence which 
is the very opposite of humility and meekness. It 
was not inconsistent with a certain shrinking timid- 
ity. "It is probable," writes Dean Paget, "that 
St. Paul suffered a great deal from fear. He might 
perhaps have said with the most brilliantly coura- 
geous soldier of our day, ' For my part, I am always 
frightened, and very much so.' Certainly he would 
have made his own the confession of the Psalmist, 
' I am sometime afraid,' but, like General Gordon, 
he but rarely, perhaps never, gave way to it. He 
never acted or refused to act because of it." Ac- 
cording to his own confession he labored amongst 
the Corinthians in " weakness, fear, and much 
trembling," but no ministry save that of his Master 
was so absolutely fearless. Having made up his 
mind not to know anything amongst them save Jesus 
Christ and Him crucified, not to use enticing words 
of men's wisdom, but to rely simply on the demon- 
stration of the Spirit and the inherent power of the 
message he had to give, he kept to his resolve. 
1 Liddon, "Clerical Life and Work," p. 127. 



62 The Ministry of " the Man." 

We must speak out, then, though we fear, pro- 
claim the whole Gospel God has entrusted to us even 
though men dislike it and criticise it as narrow, hard, 
and unjust. Though it is probably true that modern 
preaching is, as a rule, deficient in this virtue of 
boldness, yet we are able to point to such illustra- 
tions as that of Dean Hook using his only opportu- 
nity of preaching before the Queen to proclaim the 
authority of the Church, and that of the Bishop of 
New York serving the occasion of the Washington 
Centenary by a stern rebuke of national vices rather 
than by a flattery of national hopes. I have spoken 
of this at some length, for there is good reason to 
believe that it is a need of the times. Mr. Glad- 
stone, no bad judge of what men want, writes that, in 
his opinion, " the clergymen of the day were not, 
as a rule, severe enough upon their congregations. 
They do not sufficiently lay upon the souls and con- 
sciences of their hearers their moral obligation or 
probe their lives and bring them up to the bar of 
conscience ; the sermons most needed are those simi- 
lar to the one that offended Lord Melbourne when he 
complained that he was obliged to listen to a preacher 
who insisted upon a man's applying his religion 
to his private life. This is the kind of preaching 
men need most and get least of." The true teacher 
will not be afraid of the law " Veritas odium facit" 
and for this reason, that precious as popular opinion 
may be, the Truth is even more valuable. Popular 
opinion may vary, be set in one direction on one day 



Sympathy in Teaching. 63 

and in the opposite the day following, but Truth is 
ever the same, and the more attractive the better she 
is known. 

(j) Sympathy. 

We now pass on to the third marked characteristic 
of our Lord's teaching — His sympathy. Boldness 
and indifference to public opinion often mean hard- 
ness and want of feeling. A bold teacher not seldom 
rides rough-shod over the prejudices and traditions 
of his people. Whether it be on the iron steed of 
the Church or on the more restive horse of social- 
ism, such an one plunges along his way quite care- 
less of the sensitive feelings he is treading under 
foot. And though the respect for and interest in 
such bold and free riding will often deceive such an 
one into a foolish confidence that he is succeeding 
because there are many there to admire his audacity, 
he finds, as time goes on, that whilst men were 
arrested they were not convinced. It was not so, 
we need hardly say, with our Lord, who loved to be 
pointed out rather as the Lamb of God than as the 
Lion of the tribe of Judah, who could appeal to men 
to come to Him because He was " meek and lowly 
in heart." Indifference to the accidental advan- 
tages or disadvantages of men was never betrayed 
into a carelessness about the man himself. The 
imperial state of a Roman governor, the luxurious 
surroundings of an Idumaeau prince, were matters of 
small interest, but Pilate and Herod were men whom 



64 The Ministry of " the Man" 

He tried to win, for they were amongst those for 
whom He was about to die. With their tempta- 
tions and difficulties He was in full sympathy, and by 
His reasoning with the one and His austere silence 
towards the other, He sought to arouse in them a 
sense of their awful condition. It was this sympathy 
with men that made our Lord so attractive a teacher. 
" The common people heard Him gladly," because 
they felt that He cared about them. 

As we have seen, He took pains to understand 
them, and labored with infinite patience and wisdom 
so to put His truth that they might be persuaded to 
listen. In the Sermon on the Mount, for example, 
He sought to win their attention by describing at 
the outset the great advantages and privileges that 
belong to the citizens of His Kingdom. " Words of 
blessing fell on the ears of those who were used only 
to hear of their shortcomings and to be treated as 
outcasts ; and when their attention was caught by the 
unusual sound and they listened to hear who it was 
who were blessed, they found it was not the strong 
and the wealthy and the high-spirited — those whom 
they regarded as having the good things of existence 
whilst they had the bad — but the blessed are the poor 
in spirit, and this Kingdom of Heaven newly pro- 
claimed belonged to them. The attention caught 
by the opening is kept alive by the unexpected na- 
ture of the matter. ' ' x 

It is ever thus ; in all His teaching, whether public 
1 Latham, " Pastor Pastorum," p. 210. 



Our Lord 's Sympathy. 6$ 

or private, He begins by compelling His hearers, in 
spite of themselves, to agree with Him, and then 
leads them by an irresistible chain of argument to a 
conclusion they must either accept or else condemn 
themselves for refusing. " What man of you is 
there ? ' ' He frequently asks, thereby gaining a gen- 
eral assent, and then from this principle of agree- 
ment He leads them to an unexpected consequence. 
The living subject is never forgotten in the treatment 
to which it is subjected. This is what we understand 
by sympathy. It was this that He recommended to 
the Apostles in the words of counsel, " Be ye there- 
fore wise as serpents and harmless as doves." And 
though it is true that the Christian Church has often 
been justly charged with want of sympathy through 
the hardness of some of those who have spoken in 
her name, yet her best teachers, those whose names 
are on the roll of her saints, have always been dis- 
tinguished as men of wide sympathy. As we think 
of St. Paul and St. John, of St. Chrysostom and St. 
Augustine, of St. Hugh of Lincoln and St. Francis 
of Assisi, we feel that their highest distinction was 
their love for those whom they taught. There is 
no occasion to give illustrations showing how such 
became " all things to all men " in their endeavors 
to win some. None save the Master was bolder for 
the Truth's sake than St. Paul, who told the Galatians 
sharply that if they were circumcised Christ would 
profit them nothing. " But, as a rule, how tender 
he is, how full of consideration and charity, how 
5 



66 The Ministry of " the Man." 

tolerant, how hopeful ! The prejudice against the 
meat exposed for sale in the Corinthian market was 
a weakly superstition; but for himself he would 
rather eat no flesh whatever while the world lasted 
than offend the conscience of a weak brother. The 
private observance of days, Jewish or other, at Rome, 
was no part of the Church's rule, and might easily 
engender Jewish errors ; but the Apostle insists that 
those who kept these days did so to the Lord, and 
should be respected in the observance. The strong, 
he says, with a touch of quiet irony, ought to bear 
the infirmities of the weak, and not to please them- 
selves. And, to the scandal of some, no doubt, at 
the time, but for the instruction of the Church of 
all ages, what he preached he practised." x And it 
is to be noticed how he followed his divine Master 
in beginning all his instructions and sermons with 
a word of sympathy. There is scarce a letter but 
commences with the praise of those to whom he 
is writing, scarce a sermon that does not seek 
at the outset to win over prejudice by showing 
a real interest either in the history or the life of 
his hearers. 

And this all teachers of experience have recom- 
mended. One suggests that preachers " should pref- 
ace their sermons with intercessory prayer for the 
people" he is about to address; another, that the 
introduction " should win people's attention and 
place you on good terms with them so that they may 
1 Liddon, " Clerical Life and Work," p. 317. 






Results of Sympathy. 67 

be in a teachable frame of mind"; another, that 
the sermon must be written or prepared in the full 
" consciousness of an audience, and that only so is 
it enthusiastic, personal, and warm " ; * another, that 
we should think of the wonderful opportunity of 
helping that lies before us — " of the spiritual want 
which perchance we can supply, of the inward, un- 
spoken sorrow which we can console, of the heart- 
craving which we can satisfy, . . . and so catch 
the spirit of our Master — hear His voice saying, ' I 
have compassion on the multitudes.' " 2 In all these 
ways we shall grow in sympathetic touch as we pre- 
pare, and kindle more perhaps in the silence and 
solitude of our own study than in the church ; but, 
as Bishop Phillips Brooks says, " the wonderful thing 
is that that fire, if it is really present in the sermon 
when it is written, stays there and breaks out into 
flame again when the delivery of the sermon comes." 
Sympathy once begotten is not dependent on the 
state of the weather, the size of the congregation, or 
the way in which the service is rendered ; latent for 
a time, it at once leaps into expression when it faces 
those whom it has already seen and labored over in 
prayers. 

1 Bp. Brooks, " Lectures on Preaching," p. 172. 

2 Bp. Boyd Carpenter, " Preaching," p. 26. 



DEVOTIONS. 

Blessed be Thy sacred Lips and most gracious Tongue, 
with which Thou didst so often express the delight of 
the heavenly Life, and commend to us the counsels of 
eternal truth ; announcing distinctly to the whole world 
that Thou Thyself art the true and marvellous Light. 

Grant me, most loving Jesus, Thou best of Masters, 
that I may with a holy thirst drink from the streams of 
Thy saving teaching. May I diligently study, wisely 
understand, sweetly taste, peacefully enjoy the sacred 
words of Thy mouth, and carefully fashion all my disci- 
pline according to their guidance. 1 

O Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, the Fount 
of Wisdom, grant me ability to understand, capacity to 
retain, facility in learning, and gracious eloquence of 
expression. In Thy mercy help me in all my prepara- 
tion to begin wisely, to persevere steadfastly, and to per- 
fect thoroughly the lesson Thou dost give me to learn. 
So may I edify those whom Thou hast committed to 
my care. 

Hy7ti7i 357 (A. &" M.) or 586. 

Psalm cxix. 97-104. 

Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent. 

1 "Meditations on the Life of Christ," St. Thomas a Kempis. 



IV. 
THE LION OR THE MINISTRY OF " THE KING.' 



MEDITATION. 
The Royalty of Christ. 

Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then ? Jesus 
answered, Thou say est that I am a king. To this end was I born, 
and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness 
unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. 
— St. John xviii. 37. 

"Art Thoua King? " — It seemed so unlikely ! Alone 

(1) — a prisoner — bound — bearing in His Body 
The Question, the marks of ill-treatment ! Where was 
His Kingdom, where His subjects, where His Power ? 
So, too, asks the world of His Priests. These men, so 
straitened in their resources, so wanting in the out- 
ward symbols of power, so widely criticised — these men 
kings ! Yes, for the King of Kings hath " made us kings 
unto God." 

"Thou say est I am a King. To this end was I born, 

(2) and for this cause came I into the world, 
The Answer, that Ishould bear witness unto the Truth " 
— Yes, the very purpose and object of the Incarnation 
of the Word was to establish a kingdom over which He 
might reign. And as every kingdom stands for some- 
thing, has some national characteristic, so His should 
bear witness to the Truth. 

"The Truth," as delivered by Christ and His Apostles, 
as enshrined in the Holy Scriptures, as expressed in the 
(Ecumenical Creeds, is the banner of His Kingdom, 



Meditation. 71 

reared up aloft " for the fall and rising again of many in 
Israel." May God give me grace to be faithful to it, to 
be loyal to the flag of Christ. 

"Every one that is of the Truth heareth My voice" — 
( 3 ) Christ saw what Pilate could not see. He 

its Meaning, looked down the ages and saw troops of 
men, women, and children streaming along every road 
that leads to the City of God. All these confess them- 
selves His subjects. Philosophers, warriors, kings, 
statesmen, lawyers, merchants, artisans, and craftsmen 
become His sworn soldiers. It is in this that my hope 
lies : the children of the Truth will obey the Truth if I 
am but faithful in delivering it. 

I will strive by God's help always to remember the 
dignity of that Royal Character with which 

Resolution. b > , / 

God has endowed me, and to seek to ex- 
press in all my work of organization that Truth which 
is the inner spirit of His Kingdom. 



IV. 
THE LION OR THE MINISTRY OF "THE KING." 

The Royal Office. 

We have seen how the message of God has been 
borne along through the ages by " prophets which 
have been since the world began" — prophets of 
Judaism such as Samuel, Isaiah, and Daniel ; prophets 
of Christendom such as St. Paul, St. John, St. Chrysos- 
tom, St. Augustine — all of whom find their model and 
great example in the great Prophet, Jesus Christ, the 
very Word of God, whose portrait in this respect is 
given us by St. Matthew. Men, as we have already 
said, have understood this aspect of ministry better 
than any other. That Christ was a great Teacher and 
that His ministers must follow His example in this 
particular is so widely accepted that with many the 
words Preacher and Minister are synonymous. And 
yet a little thought is sufficient to show us that the 
Kingdom of God could never have been built up by 
preaching alone. A kingdom suggests organization, 
and for organization we must have a king to plan and 
develop it. 

Now, as we look once again at Ezekiel's vision of 



The Royal Office, 73 

perfect ministry, we see that the living creatures 
which supported the chariot of God had not only the 
face of a man, but " they four had also the face of 
a lion." The lion indicates Royal Majesty and 
Strength. The character of " the man," then, must 
be supplemented by that of " the king." The min- 
isterial office is not exhausted in the work of the 
Prophet, which needs to be organized and developed 
by the work of the Ruler. 

This indeed is frankly acknowledged now every- 
where by Churchpeople. Those who are interested 
in the parochial vacancies that occur now and again, 
ask whether the man whom they are thinking of 
recommending to such and such a position is merely 
a good preacher, whether it can be said that he is a 
good visitor, a " man of affairs," with tact and wis- 
dom for the organization or the carrying on of a well- 
organized parish. Is he able to originate, plan, and 
execute the various beneficial schemes which are 
now thought to be necessary for the building up of 
Christ's Kingdom ? 

It might at first be thought that in this we should 
gain but little direct help from our Lord's example. 
The various societies and guilds which form a part of 
every well-worked parish seem to have no relation to 
any work of His. And yet not only is He spoken 
of as " the Lion of the tribe of Judah," "the 
King of Kings " ; not only has one of the four Gos- 
pels, that of St. Mark, been written to delineate His 
Royal Character, but His Priesthood, the essential 



74 The Ministry of " the King." 

characteristic of which we hope to speak of in the 
next address but one, is described as being after 
"the order of Melchizedek " rather than that of 
Aaron, clearly implying that it has regal characteris- 
tics. He is a King-Priest. What function, then, 
belongs to Him in this regard ? It is the office of a 
king to found and establish kingdoms, to plan their 
extension and well-being, to defend them from at- 
tacks, and to devise all such means as may conduce 
to the well-being of his subjects. This we shall 
see our Lord did. And something of this kind 
every one who is associated with Him in His Mel- 
chizedek Priesthood is called upon to do. He is 
made a King as well as a Priest unto God. His duty 
is not only that of teaching, but, as our Ordinal 
rightly expresses it, of "seeking for Christ's sheep 
that are dispersed abroad, of feeding and providing 
for them ; he is never to cease his labour, care, and 
diligence till he has done all that lieth in him to 
bring all such as are or shall be committed to his 
charge unto that agreement in the faith and knowl- 
edge of God, and that ripeness and perfectness of 
age in Christ, that there be no place left either for 
error in religion orforviciousness in life." In prin- 
ciple this is the work of a king, and in the execution 
of it he will find help and guidance by looking at 
the way in which Christ ruled as King. 

Now, it is obvious that for work of this kind the 
first thing necessary is a plan and system. A ruler 
without method would soon find his affairs in confu- 



The Plan. 75 

sion. Having a plan, his next duty is to associate 
with him those who can carry it out. Their training 
or direction will naturally follow. We shall confine 
our remarks during this address to these three points : 
(1) the plan, (2) the workers, (3) their direction, 
reserving the personal characteristics of the work to 
the next address. 

(1) The Plan. 

So much has been said, and well said, by Canon 
Liddon in his Bampton Lectures about the plan of 
Jesus Christ, that it is quite unnecessary for me to 
do anything but remind you of it. It was clear and 
full at the outset, as he says. " It issues almost ' as 
if in a single jet ' and with a fully developed body 
from the thought of Jesus Christ. Put together the 
Sermon on the Mount, the Charge to the Twelve 
Apostles, the Parables of the Kingdom, the Dis- 
course in the Supper-Room, and the institution of 
the two great Sacraments, and the plan of our Saviour 
is before you." z But not only was it clear and full, 
it was also subject to no change. " Certainly with 
the lapse of time, He enters upon a larger and larger 
area of ministerial action ; He develops with ma- 
jestic assurance, with decisive rapidity, the integral 
features of His work; His teaching centres more and 
more upon Himself as its central subject; but He 
nowhere retracts or modifies or speaks or acts as. 
1 Liddon : Bampton Lectures, III, p. 113. 



y6 The Ministry of " the King!' 

would one who feels that he is dependent upon events 
or agencies which he cannot control." Nothing was 
left to what we call chance or accident; all had 
been foreseen and calculated. And though its reali- 
zation was very slow and in the face of tremendous 
obstacles, our Lord is perfectly confident that nothing 
can ultimately balk it. He is patient because He 
is sure. He is calm because He knows it is inde- 
structible. " The gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it." T " Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
but My words shall not pass away." 2 

As Christ had His plan, so, too, every Priest-King 
associated with Him must have a plan. We may 
not have the privilege of following so closely in His 
steps as to found a kingdom in a place where His 
Name is unknown, but to all the duty will come of 
developing, perfecting, and establishing it. And 
for that a plan is necessary. We may have the most 
interesting and romantic parish in the world, its 
past history may be a subject of common talk owing 
to the great names associated with its rectorate, and 
the great battles that have been fought within its 
limits, but without organization its power is idle. 
It influences neither the neighborhood nor the life 
of the diocese in which it is situated. It may be 
fortunate in possessing an eloquent rector, or a 
wealthy congregation, but without method or plan 
the power of both is limited. Bishop Thorold tells 
us that when he visited Greece, and, from the sum- 
1 St. Matt. xvi. 18. 2 St. Matt. xxiv. 35. 



Necessity of a Plan. J J 

mit of Pentelicus, looked down over the tumulus of 
Marathon and the gleaming waters of the ./Egean, 
upon the hills and valleys of that immortal land, 
the impression he received was of a somewhat com- 
monplace character. " What that interesting country 
seemed to need far more than extended country, 
costly armaments, or even a footstool in a European 
Congress, was roads. Until she has suitable means 
of communication between her towns and her forests 
and her mines and her quarries and her seaports, she 
will not be important ; for she cannot be prosper- 
ous." Applying this impression to parochial work, 
he added : ' ' What roads are to the commerce of 
a country, organization is to the methods of the 
Church. . . . The Apostles mended their nets, 
as well as used them. Noah built as well as 
preached." We ask ourselves, then, as we face this 
part of our work, what is our plan ? We know the 
ground, are familiar with its needs, but have we any 
clear idea as to how the remote parts of our parish 
are to be brought into closer touch with its centre ; 
have we any method by which those who live a mile or 
two away from the Church may yet retain their fellow- 
ship ? Again, there are deep and difficult valleys or 
gaps, as they are sometimes called, made by some 
moral upheaval in past days, which require to be 
bridged ; or damp, marsh-like places, where spirits 
are depressed and spiritual malaria infects the atmos- 
phere, which need to be drained, or else bedded with 
a good road ; or thick woods, " wherein all the beasts 



78 The Ministry of " the Ring" 

of the forest do move," which ought to be cleared. 
Of what service are our sermons and instructions in 
the Church so long as these things are present ? 

How useless to urge that those living far away 
ought to feel their needs so deeply that neither dis- 
tance nor weather is felt to be a hindrance, that 
the spiritually depressed ought to glow with emotion 
when they hear the church bell, that those whose 
spiritual faith is almost gone through some terrible 
disappointment in an ungodly predecessor are at 
once to give their confidence to one whom they do 
not know, and that the sinful whose actions infect 
the whole atmosphere of the place had best be left 
alone ! 

We cannot content ourselves with such excuses 
nor plead that our duty is fufilled so long as we have 
hours fixed when people may come and see us. 
That was not His way. " Jesus went about all 
the cities and villages . . . preaching the Gos- 
pel of the Kingdom, ' ' * and that has ever been the 
Church's way. "You know," says St. Paul to the 
elders of Ephesus, " how I kept back nothing that 
was profitable unto you, but have shewed you and have 
taught you publicly and from house to house." 2 So it 
is the office of a deacon, according to the Anglican 
Ordinal, to search for the sick, poor, and impotent 
people of the parish — a comprehensive phrase em- 
bracing all the needy. We do not cease to be 
deacons when we become priests ; the lower office is 
1 St. Mark vi. 6. 2 Acts xx. 20. 



The Workers. 79 

taken up into the higher, and where we are alone its 
duties must be fulfilled by us. It has been hazarded 
that our Lord specially contemplated His Divine 
plan during His forty days' retreat in the wilder- 
ness. It may be so, and if so, can we not, then, 
during this retreat, sketch out some plan by which 
the fellowship and warmth of the Church may be 
more widely felt ? And when we have our plan, let 
us be patient with it. Remembering how long our 
King has had to wait, remembering the very slow 
way in which it developed, let us check all unreason- 
able haste, taking pains that our proposed arrange- 
ments are well laid out, that they are not imprudent 
nor wanting in spiritual generosity. Our Lord's 
plan cost Him His life. What will ours cost ? See 
the caution He gives. (St. Luke xiv. 25-33.) 

(2) The Workers, (a) Choosing Workers. 

Our Lord not only had a well-defined plan for His 
work, but also men who should help Him to carry it 
out. It were better to have men without a plan than 
a plan without men. When Lord Lawrence was 
asked for a few hints as to how he had managed so 
successfully in restoring order during the mutiny, 
he replied : "It is not our system, but our men." 
Of course, had our Lord chosen, He could have car- 
ried out the whole plan of building up His Kingdom 
without the help of a single creature ; but the prin- 
ciple of the Incarnation is cooperation. He chose 



80 The Ministry of "the King." 

to save man through the assumption of Human 
Nature ; so, too, He chose to perfect His work of 
salvation by fellowship with mankind. The wine- 
press indeed He trod alone. " Of the people there 
was none with Him," but the foundation of His 
Church consisted not only of the Great Corner-Stone, 
but also of twelve stones closely cemented with it. 
It was ever His way as expressed in the words, " I 
and the children thou hast given Me." 

Our Lord, then, at the outset of His ministry seeks 
for men. We note first where He looks for them. 
It is not in cultured Jerusalem, where learned scribes, 
scholars, and doctors are to be found, but in the 
wilderness of Judaea. He goes away from the eccle- 
siastical centre, where He might have had the assist- 
ance of men of wealth like Joseph of Arimathaea or 
men of social distinction like Nicodemus, to the 
Jordan, whither publicans, harlots, soldiers, and social 
outcasts were hurrying. And this because He is 
looking for spiritual rather than carnal weapons — 
weapons forged in the hot fires of the Baptist's stern 
discipline. He is looking for men who knew by 
personal experience what the needs of the soul were, 
and who were waiting for some one to satisfy them — 
men who practised bodily self-denial and knew how 
to pray. And such He found amongst the disciples of 
the Baptist, men who had not only publicly confessed 
their sins (St. Mark i. 5), but learned to fast and 
pray (St. Mark ii. 18, and St. Luke xi. 1). Are we 
wiser than He ? Is the disciple above his Master ? 



Choosing Workers. 81 

If not, why do we employ methods so different in 
principle from His ? We seek for the men of posi- 
tion — the wealthy merchant, the rising lawyer, the 
influential tradesman. It may be that we neglect 
the faithful workers trained under the eye of our 
earnest predecessor. We think we shall find diffi- 
culties with them. They have had a different train- 
ing, are accustomed to certain habits of devotion 
with which we are unfamiliar, and perhaps know only 
a very elementary Gospel of Repentance ; they have 
indeed spiritual fervor, but are without the culture 
or worldly advantages which we have thought neces- 
sary for success in parochial work. We recognize 
that our parish consists mainly of people of their 
own rank of life, and yet we shrink from using those 
who best understand their prejudices. We are re- 
pelled by their dulness or narrowness, by their rough- 
ness or shyness, forgetting that our Lord fashioned a 
St. Peter out of Simon, a St. Matthew out of Levi 
the publican. We know well enough that they have 
a devotion and personal love to our Lord which those 
we have selected seem to be without ; but we ask our- 
selves how shall we ever make anything out of them? 
And so we prefer the more cautious and timid Nico- 
demus to the zealous James or Andrew. We are not, 
of course, implying that there are no earnest, spiritual- 
minded men amongst the wealthy and educated — 
such an implication would argue great ignorance of 
the forces which the Anglican Church commands — 
but that we are rather inclined to look to the homes 
6 



82 The Ministry of " the King:* 

of culture and refinement for our workers than to 
the cottages of the poor, which so often contain real 
spiritual wealth. The Galileans are never very at- 
tractive to those who are accustomed to the careful 
manners and refined pronunciation of a cultured 
Judaea, but the Galileans conquered the world in 
spite of the roughness of their accent and the re- 
proach that they were ' ' unlearned and ignorant 
men." 

TJie Workers, {p) Finding Workers. 

We have seen what kind of men our Lord sought 
for. We now consider how He found them. In the 
first place, we notice that He regarded them as His 
by gift rather than by discovery. " Thine they 
were," He says in His prayer to the Father before 
He suffered, " and Thou gavest them Me." Acting 
in accordance with this conviction, our Lord does 
not invite the first disciples. He simply places 
Himself where such as He desires are likely to be, 
and waits for them to be given Him. On the first 
day, in spite of the uplifting and directing words of 
the Baptist, who points Him out, none follow Him, 
and He spends the day alone ; but on the second day 
there is an immediate response, and St. Andrew ac- 
companied, it would seem, by St. John, seek Him 
out and stay some hours with Him. 

The Priest-King who imitates this sublime atti- 
tude of faith will be in no hurry to choose those who 
are to help in the building up of the kingdom of 



Finding Workers. 83 

God. He asks that they may be given him, and 
then quietly waits. But this waiting is no lazy, indo- 
lent staying at home until some enthusiast shall beg 
to be pressed into the service ; rather, the expectant 
Ruler seeks the places where the spiritual-minded are 
wont to be found, and then patiently waits till some 
one seeks him out desiring a fuller instruction in the 
Gospel. Faith in this, as in our prophetic ministry, 
is our first need — such faith as led Samuel to put aside 
his own judgment and pass over Eliab, and Jesse's 
other sons, waiting till God's will should be clearly 
revealed. The Davids are not those who are promi- 
nent in the affairs of the world, and it needs a pe- 
culiar spiritual insight, the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
to find them. But before passing on let us note the 
welcome our Lord gives those who seek Him. It 
was at ten in the morning that the interview took 
place, and He gave them the rest of the day. Not 
an hour or two, but a whole day ! It is in this way 
that devoted workers are made. 

Our Lord now waits again till those who know 
Him bring others. St. Andrew finds his own brother 
Simon, and St. John doubtless his brother James. 
So the tie already formed is strengthened. To bring 
others of itself strengthens attachment, and when 
those brought are of kin, there is an added bond 
which keeps them from falling apart. We see here 
another principle, that of waiting till those we have 
already won have persuaded others to join them. 
The time may be long and work may be standing 



84 The Ministry of " the King." 

still, but better that we suffer delay than the dis- 
appointment and hindrance that unworthy workers 
always cause. 

Perhaps half the little band of Apostles was gath- 
ered together by spiritual impulse or the persuasion 
of friends. Our Lord does not, however, confine 
Himself to these two methods of obtaining workers. 
There are some whom He Himself finds. "He 
findeth Philip and saith unto him, Follow Me" (St. 
John i. 43). He found also St. Matthew and bade 
him follow Him. It may be He found and called 
some of the others. Why, we ask, does He pursue 
this plan ? The answer may be seen, we think, in 
the characters of those thus called. St. Philip was 
evidently of a shrinking, sensitive character without 
much spiritual ability to penetrate the mysteries of 
faith (see St. John vi. 7; xii. 21; xiv. 8-9). He 
needed the personal encouragement which came with 
the strong words of Christ. And St. Matthew's posi- 
tion as a publican would have always kept him back 
from hoping that he could have the honor of so inti- 
mate an acquaintance with our Lord as the position 
of a disciple indicated. Our Lord called them be- 
cause they needed the help of His outward expres- 
sion of sympathy. 

Such there may be amongst those to whom we 
preach. And with them we may have the less fear in 
dealing directly because neither their character nor 
their social position would of themselves be likely 
to persuade us to take action; their spiritual force 



Limitations of Choice. 85 

alone moves us to enroll them amongst our inner band 
of workers. It is those who have means or influence 
with whom we are most likely to make a mistake. 
And if we should ever be tempted by such purely 
Worldly considerations, it may be well to remember 
how our Lord met such advances. To the young man 
of wealth He replied, " Go and sell that thou hast 
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in 
heaven : and come and follow Me " : to the member 
of the Sanhedrin He replied, " Except a man be 
born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." 
The last answer drove the questioner back for three 
years, the first seemed as though it led to his being 
lost forever ; but as the moral cowardice of the one 
was conquered by the death of Christ, so it is to be 
hoped that the selfishness of the other was ultimately 
broken down by His love. Perhaps many parishes 
would have been saved from serious troubles had not 
the desire to have wealth and position associated 
with the Church been given too free a rein. 

It may be asked here, what is the parish to do 
whilst the clergyman is waiting thus cautiously for 
helpers ? What about the Sunday-school, the choir, 
the guilds, etc.? Are not spiritual persons required 
for such duties, and, if so, must not some other 
method be adopted to keep the parochial machinery 
going ? The answer, we think, is simple. Besides 
the Twelve, our Lord had seventy others whom He 
appointed to work for Him. These did not stand in 
the same close relationship to Him as the Twelve. 



S6 The Ministry of " the King:' 

They are not set apart to be with Him ; i.e., to learn 
His Mind and the secret counsels of His Heart, but 
to represent Him in the different villages which He 
intended visiting. They are to prepare His way (St. 
Luke x. i). This is not unlike the position occupied 
by the Sunday-school Teachers, District Visitors, and 
the like. They make ready the young for the clergy- 
man's Confirmation Classes, the sick and poor for his 
visits. Such will always be found in any established 
parish, and will be welcomed by the Priest-King as 
officers already trained and tried. But such are not 
to be confounded with those more intimate and care- 
fully selected few who are to share his secrets, to 
know his plans, and interpret his mind. Those are 
his friends — " friends " because he makes known to 
them the plans which the Spirit of God suggests 
from time to time (St. John xv. 15). 

The Workers, {c) Training Workers. 

Those our Lord found and called He did not at 
once place in the College of Apostles. The Twelve 
needed training. Our Lord seems to allude to this 
in His Prayer of Intercession. " While I was with 
them I kept them in Thy Name which Thou hast 
given Me ; and I guarded them, and not one of them 
perished but the son of perdition." x So He speaks 
of the eleven who were given to Him ; the twelfth, 
we may well believe, was not given Him — nay, he 
1 1 St. John xvii. 12. 






Training Workers, %y 

rather thrust himself into the position of an Apos- 
tle, our Lord graciously accepting him that if possi- 
ble He might save him from the sin which even then 
so strongly beset him. We note the two phrases " I 
kept them,'''' li I guarded them" the first referring to 
the ever-watchful care our Lord gave them, the sec- 
ond to His protecting hand which defended them 
when assaulted. Both were constant features in that 
training which went on beneath His own eye. We 
shall consider three aspects of it : (i) The education 
was graduated. (2) It was that of a family rather 
than that of a school. (3) Its guiding principles 
were : (a) faith and (b) order. 

(1) The Education was Graduated. 

At first those who were called were allowed to be 
with Him, that they might know Him, and through 
His Signs realize something of the greatness of His 
Personality. But this familiar intercourse was bro- 
ken off. They were sent to their homes that they 
might quietly reflect on all they had heard and seen, 
and consider how far they were prepared to follow 
Him altogether. They went back to their old trade 
of fishing. Though chosen, they are not yet finally 
called. St. Peter must learn the wide difference be- 
tween himself and his Master, and this the separa- 
tion, followed as it was by the miraculous draught of 
the fish, taught him (St. Luke v. 8). He joins Christ 
again in the spirit of deep penitence. But even 



88 The Ministry of " the King." 

after this some time elapses before he becomes an 
Apostle. Our Lord here teaches us the importance 
of sifting the character of those we believe to be 
given us before putting them into a position of re- 
sponsibility. Earnestness is not the only thing 
necessary ; humility must be learned and deepened. 
As the Apostles were taught their dependence upon 
Christ for all things by the fruitless night's fishing, 
so it may be that those who will one day do the 
Church the best service must first learn by some fail- 
ure in their home or business life that their future 
success will depend on their faith rather than their 
wisdom. We must wait for some token of this humble 
spirit, some sign that the worker feels both the great- 
ness of the call and his own impotence in fulfilling 
the tasks it involves. 

(2) The Training, that of the Home rather than that of the School. 

Distrust of self having been learned, our Lord takes 
His disciples into the most familiar fellowship with 
Himself. Unlike the seventy, whose first duty was 
to go forth into the villages and preach, their first 
duty is " to be with Him" (St. Mark iii. 14). 
They were ordained for that purpose. What blessed 
privileges it involved ! They shared His lot, became 
members of His Family, slept under the same roof 
or skies with Him, ate and drank with Him, became 
His friends rather than His servants. And this close 
relationship our Lord expressed by the pet names He 



Home Training, 89 

gave them, Simon being called Peter; James and 
John, Boanerges; Levi, Matthew; and probably Bar- 
tholomew, Nathaniel, as also by His custom (so it 
would seem from St. Mark xiv. 44, 45) of kissing 
them. Thus they were privileged to see and know 
something of His inner Life, just as fellow-travellers 
do who share the same room, meals, etc. Such a dis- 
closure of private character is either very stimulating 
or weakening. We need not ask what it was in His 
case. The Apostle whose writings show great sensi- 
tiveness to the hateful character of sin describes 
Him as the Lamb without blemish and without spot, 
and his fellow-Apostle speaks of Him as One in 
" Whom was no sin." The effect of this perfectly 
sinless and holy life upon those who had such 
unique and frequent opportunities for observing it 
must have been very powerful. They learned to 
notice His look, His actions, His silence, and to be 
more influenced by them than by His spoken words. 
Seeing His rapt devotion in prayer, they begged to 
be taught how to pray ; observing His zeal for work, 
they learnt that no food brings such real refreshment 
as doing the Father's will. So, from the contempla- 
tion of His life, they learned sympathy for Samari- 
tans, publicans, and outcasts ; tolerance for those 
who worked apart from them, love for little children, 
reverence for womanhood, and such personal enthu- 
siasm for Himself as even the Cross could not alto- 
gether quench. 

It may be said that, effective as our Lord's example 



90 The Ministry of " the King." 

is in this regard, the rules and customs of modern 
life prevent at least any very close imitation. Things 
being as they are, it is impossible for a Rector to 
have his chief workers living with him in the house. 
And, of course, this is frankly admitted, though 
clergy houses show that even here there may be a 
closer approximation to our Lord's method than 
might at first be thought possible. But even else- 
where the principle may find a larger expression 
than is often supposed. The few to whom we look 
to interpret our minds to the people and theirs to us 
may and ought to be admitted to a more generous 
and intimate fellowship than is common. We find 
no difficulty in inviting those whose intellectual or 
social tastes are similar to ours, though they are out 
of full sympathy with the Church. Why, then, should 
we feel hesitation in inviting to a closer social inter- 
course those whose spirits are already one with ours 
in the great essentials of faith ? Those who know us 
at home become our best interpreters, for they know 
the spirit that lies behind the sermon, the personal- 
ity that is so often misjudged through unfortunate 
expression. 

(j) Its Guiding Principles, (a) Faith. 

It is not difficult to select the one principle of 
education on which our Lord laid most stress. It 
was not tact, good judgment, or wisdom, though He 
does speak of these ; it was not sympathy with the 



Training in Faith. 91 

needs they sought to satisfy, though He shows by 
His whole manner of dealing with the sick how im- 
portant this was : it was Faith — Faith in God and also 
Faith in man. He taught the first by sending them 
forth without money, change of clothes, or even a 
stick. They were to depend for their maintenance, 
their health, and their refreshment on God alone. 
So they were accustomed to live and work without 
any material resources. Their life, and not only 
selected moments of it, was one long prayer. After 
some experience of God's goodness in satisfying all 
their needs, they lost even their first feeling of won- 
der and surprise at finding food and shelter just when 
they wanted it. They grew to be " at home "in the 
life of faith. 

But not only faith in God, but faith in man. They 
were to go forth with confidence that man would be 
the channel through which God would provide for 
their necessities. And through the fellowship and 
hospitality which they would find offered to them the 
Gospel would make great progress. Receiving with 
gladness what was put before them, abiding where 
they were asked to stay, they would become a part 
of the family life, trusting and being trusted. They 
would carry into dull, sad, or worldly homes the 
manners and sweetness they had learned at the table 
of Christ. People would catch something of the 
beauty of the Christian life, be attracted towards 
a life that was strong and yet tender, sober and yet 
affectionate. 



92 The Ministry of " the King!' 

So, too, with our chosen workers, their guiding 
principle must be faith — faith in God that He will 
enable them to meet every difficulty with success. 
It may sometimes be well, when necessity arises, to 
send them forth to a piece of work without the time 
or means of preparation, that they may learn that 
though our Lord demands that we be serious and ear- 
nest in doing our very best to fit ourselves for His 
work, yet He can dispense with even this. It is this 
gift of faith that will enable them to be calm and 
quiet, free from the fussiness which so often spoils 
good work. They are accustomed to meet with 
difficulties which seemed insoluble, and are familiar 
with the unexpected helps which come just when 
they are needed ; so situations which to others ap- 
pear to be fraught with danger are recognized by 
them to be opportunities for the exercise of God's 
Providence. 

But faith in man is only less necessary than faith 
in God. They must learn to expect and look for a 
response from man. If the message is divine there 
are certainly some who will hear. Let them then 
throw themselves upon the hospitality of those they 
minister to, break bread with them, make a home 
of the house or cottage which is ready to receive 
them, and so illustrate the fellowship of the Church. 
Those who have ministered to their bodily wants will 
listen with fresh attention to what their guests have to 
say about spiritual needs. They will be prepared to 
champion their cause, explain away the difficulties 



Training in Order. 93 

which their addresses or conversations arouse in the 
minds of others, and bear testimony to the gentle 
life which lies behind their bold statements of faith. 



Its Guiding Principles, (b) Order. 

This Royal work, with its inner circle of friends, 
its larger bands of helpers, with its Guilds, Brother- 
hoods, Teachers, etc., is so large and covers such a 
wide area, that the Priest-King may well feel quite 
troubled when contemplating it. It seems as though 
all his time would be spent in making arrangements 
for this or that meeting, and organizing this or that 
new field of operations which his activity has created. 
He fears that his strength and that of his workers 
will be extended over such a large surface that no 
particular point will feel it in any freshness. It is 
clear there must be method; but what must it be? 
It cannot be right to neglect those scattered far and 
wide for the sake of those who, living near the cen- 
tre, have the privileges of the Church; nor can it 
be right to give less care to the communicants than 
to the ungodly. We look to our Lord for example 
and instruction, and find both. In His practice He 
confined Himself almost entirely to the Jews. It is 
true that He gave some teaching to Samaria and 
some help and sympathy to the heathen in the north 
and east coasts of Galilee, but this was a divergence 
from His principle. "He was not sent," He de- 
clared, " but to the lost sheep of the house of 



94 The Ministry of " the King." 

Israel." We know that He does not mean by these 
words that He had no care for the great world of 
heathendom that lay outside Galilee; that was the 
constant subject of His prayers, and for it He was 
presently to die. His meaning rather was that as 
the night was shortly coming when no man can 
work, He must observe a first and second. And 
the first place is given to those to whom were com- 
mitted the oracles of God, " to whom pertaineth 
the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the 
giving of the Law and the service of God and the 
promises." 1 Such would necessarily, if free from 
prejudice, be better prepared to welcome and receive 
His teaching. Such would, for some time to come, 
be the missionaries of the world. This order He 
commends to the Apostles. He knew that when they 
received the divine inspiration and enthusiasm for 
missionary work in the advent of the Holy Ghost, 
they would be disposed to leave the work which pre- 
sented such tremendous difficulties as that of Jerusa- 
lem did, and scatter themselves into all lands. But 
this was not to be. " Ye shall be witnesses to Me 
both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and in Samaria 
and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." 2 They 
were first to deliver their message to their own coun- 
trymen and then to the rest of the world. The Priest- 
King will, if he be wise, observe the same order. 
His Jerusalem, with its body of formal communicants 
feeling so little need of more than that to which they 
1 Rom. ix. 4. 2 Acts i. 8. 



Order in Ministry. 95 

have been accustomed, rigidly conservative, with 
strong prejudices against change, and sensitive to the 
slightest movement in the spiritual atmosphere, does 
not present a very congenial field to the young man 
of religious enthusiasm. But his witness must first be 
borne there, whether they will hear or forbear. And 
this because he is sent to them. He cannot say with 
John Wesley, "the world is my parish." He has 
given his consent to a certain order which demands 
that he recognizes the jurisdiction belonging to that 
order. But he will be further persuaded to this by 
the consideration that the way being already pre- 
pared, the Churchpeople already being accustomed 
to a Prayer Book, a Liturgy, and the Word of God, 
they have something to which he can safely appeal in 
all his instructions. He gives himself first, then, to 
his communicants and next to those of Judaea, those 
who recognize the Church as their mother, but are not 
living in close, continuous fellowship with her. They 
need to be recalled to their allegiance and loyalty, 
to be reminded of their great privileges, to be per- 
suaded to enter again into the life of the Church of 
God. 

The Priest-King does not rest here ; he has a duty 
to those of Samaria, to those who once enjoyed the 
Church's fellowship, but who have been alienated 
from her by prejudice, by her coldness, or by spirit- 
ual neglect. His work with them needs to be at once 
conciliatory and bold. An excellent illustration of 
the spirit in which it should be done is given by our 



g6 The Ministry of " the King.'* 

Lord. But first let us notice what is not to be done. 
He sternly forbids threats and imprecations. On one 
occasion He Himself had been refused both lodging 
and entertainment simply on the ground that He was 
going to Jerusalem. The Apostles were naturally and 
rightly indignant at this treatment of One who had 
always shown such sympathy with the people of Sa- 
maria ; but when they asked whether such churlish be- 
havior should not be visited by Divine judgment, He 
rebuked them for their ignorance of the spirit of 
His Mission, which was to save rather than destroy. 1 

It may be that our desire to know our Noncon- 
formist brethren is met by a repulse ; the hospitality 
or kindness we expected is refused. We are vexed 
and angry, for we meant well. Is it not our duty to 
speak plainly and forcibly of the sinfulness of this 
sectarian spirit ? He did not think so. Such words 
might give those who are already quick to misinter- 
pret the Church's action the feeling that the Church 
was haughty and overbearing. Better far to do as He 
did — pass on quietly to another house. 

We now note the example of His positive attitude. 
This appears in His work with the woman of Samaria. 
Knowing how deep-seated her prejudices were, He 
first approached her with a request. He puts Him- 
self, as it were, under an obligation to her, and it is 
only when she is sufficiently conquered to ask of Him 
a blessing that He refers to the sin which prevented 
her receiving it. But even then note with what a 
x St. Luke ix. 54-56. 



Order issues in Breadth. 97 

delicate hand it is done. He helps her to make her 
own confession by bidding her call her husband. His 
answer to her blushing avowal leads her to feel that 
she is in the presence of One who knows her inmost 
thoughts. Half fearing what He may say next, she 
endeavors to steer the subject into a theological 
channel as to whether the Jew or the Samaritan were 
right. Our Lord not only does not refuse to follow 
her, but points out clearly the difference between 
Samaritanism and Judaism. " Ye worship ye know 
not what : we know what we worship ; for salvation 
is of the Jews." x But note what a force this plain 
statement has now that He has won her confidence. 
Had He begun with it, she would have been angry ; 
but now she expresses her desire to know the truth. 
Comment on this is needless. Had all the Church's 
dealings with her erring sons and daughters been 
characterized by this love and wisdom we should not 
have known a divided Body. 

It might seem as though the Priest-King could 
here stay were it not for the words " and unto the 
uttermost part of the earth." In some way His wit- 
ness must be carried there. Christ, though confin- 
ing His work to Judaea, showed His sympathy with the 
Greeks who sought Him out at the Passover. To 
them He gave a Gospel — that Gospel of self-sacrifice 
which they specially needed. But not only this ; 
His last act was to send His followers into all the 
world. So, too, he who rules in His Name shows 
1 St. John iv. 22. 
7 



98 The Ministry of " the Ring" 

the same wide interest. A missionary society to col- 
lect and distribute information, to gather in sub- 
scriptions, and to excite a real desire to know some- 
thing of Christ's work amongst the heathen, is with 
Him a first thought. And from them He hopes to 
supply helpers to the Mission Field, laboring that 
the Church should show equal enthusiasm with the 
Moravian Society that is said to send out one mis- 
sionary for every sixty-five of her members. 



DEVOTIONS. 

I bless and give Thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, 
Thou Power of God and Wisdom of the Father, for Thy 
glorious signs and mighty miracles, by which Thou 
didst nobly enlighten the world, and draw to Thy Gospel 
the minds of unbelievers, so clearly showing Thyself, by 
open proofs and radiant wonders, to be the Son of the 
living God, and that Thou earnest upon earth to redeem 
lost man. 

I praise and give Thee glory for Thy boundless love 
in manifesting Thyself so generous and so kind to all 
people. The poor and feeble, even the vilest sinners, 
feared not to draw near unto Thee. Thou didst permit 
them freely to speak unto Thee and to touch Thee. 
{From Thomas a Kemftis.) 

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the 
whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified, 
receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer 
before Thee for all estates of men in Thy holy Church, 
that every member of the same, in his vocation and 
ministry, may truly and godly serve Thee, through our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 

O Lord God Almighty, Who didst endue Thy holy 
Apostle Barnabas with singular gifts of the Holy Ghost, 
leave us not, we beseech Thee, destitute of Thy mani- 
fold gifts, nor yet of grace to use them always to Thy 
honor and glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



V. 
THE LION OR THE MINISTRY OF "THE KING.' 



MEDITATION. 

Death. 

We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day : 
the night cometh when no man can work. — St. John ix. 4. 

" We must work the works of Him that sent Me, while 
^ it is day " — Strange words from Him whose 

The Pressing life was eternal ! We see Him spending 
Necessity, days m wor k and nights in prayer ; cease- 
lessly, continuously working for the salvation of men ; 
constrained, as it were, by the enemy Death, which He 
saw approaching. If that be so with Him, Whose 
knowledge saw the precise limits of His earthly life, 
how much more ought it to drive me, who know not 
whether the morrow may not be my last ! 

" The night cometh when no man can work" — The 
(2) state when the outward activity will be for 

The Night. a time suspended, when life will be inward 
and the powers of the soul engaged in contemplation. 
How terrible neglect of opportunities will then seem ! 
How great the longing to have but one of the many oc- 
casions of doing good which are mine now ! Up, then, 
my soul and be doing ; let not the care of the body or 
the culture of the mind hinder thee from works which 
will endure when the body has turned to dust and the 
mind freed from its limitations ! 



Meditation. 103 

Remember, O my soul, how even the saints of God 
( 3 ) have not passed away without regrets that 

Unavailing so much was lost that might have been 
Regrets. gained! What if it be said of thy last days 
what has been recorded of another's — how he regretted 
that he had not learnt to better purpose that the secret 
of a holy, active, and peaceable life was in entire sur- 
render to God both of will and plan ; how he regretted 
his scanty, desultory, and broken study of the Word of 
God ; how he regretted his prayers ; and how he re- 
gretted the absorbing influence of trifles. But it was 
too late — life was gone. 

I will strive, by God's help, to meditate upon Death 

and Eternity more frequently, at least once 
Resolution. , , , , . 

a month, that by contemplation thereon I 
may be stirred to greater activity. 



V. 
THE LION OR THE MINISTRY OF "THE KING." 

Individual Characteristics, 

We have looked at the Royal side of our Lord's 
Character so far as certain broad principles are con- 
cerned. As a King He plans, founds, and organ- 
izes a kingdom ; as a King He chooses and trains 
its future ministers; as a King He sees how best 
He may extend it ; as a King He builds it up out 
of the ruins of the old kingdom, fulfilling rather 
than destroying, transforming rather than discarding. 
What He did then, He is ever doing now — planning, 
selecting, guiding, and ordering ; and though it may 
seem strange when we look at ourselves, it is yet true 
that we are the Ministers through whom He is seek- 
ing to fulfil His aims; we are the royal priesthood, 
anointed by the Holy Ghost to be Kings as well as 
Priests unto God. And being such, we must have the 
regal spirit as well as royal methods ; we must act 
like kings, and not merely play the king's part. It 
will be well, then, to see how the King of kings does 
His work, that we may learn from Him what vir- 
tues constitute true kingship. We have been lately 



Regal Characteristics. 105 

reminded of the danger of becoming simply men of 
business, mere organizers, delegating our spiritual 
work to subordinates, and of the consequent duty of 
taking care that we make ourselves felt to the very 
finger-tips of our parochial organization. 1 

It is this that we now look at. Though He as a 
King planned and organized, yet He never did it at 
a distance or in seclusion. He did not, like an 
Elijah, live apart from the haunts of men in some 
solitary mountain and from thence issue commands. 
His Royal Spirit was altogether different from that 
of the kings of the earth, as He Himself pointed out. 
"Ye know," He said, "that they which are ac- 
counted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship 
over them, and their great ones exercise authority 
upon them. But so shall it not be among you : but 
whosoever will be great among you, shall be your 
minister, and whosoever of you will be the chief est, 
shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man 
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and 
to give His life a ransom for many. " 2 In these words 
lies the great difference between Royal power as ex- 
ercised by the world and as exercised by the Son of 
Man. Lordship is the sign of the one, service that 
of the other. A great palace, secluded grounds, a 
retinue of servants, mark the one ; a Figure down 
upon His knees girt with a towel is the symbol of 
the other. And this great Example has had its ef- 
fect even upon the world, which has now learnt to 

1 " Speculum Sacerdotum," p. 38. a St. Mark x. 42, 



106 The Ministry of " the King." 

believe that in a Moses and a Samuel, a St. Paul and 
a St. Peter, a Chrysostom and an Augustine, a Gor- 
don and a Patteson, a Florence Nightingale and 
a Sister Dora, it has its noblest kings and queens. 
As our first Morning Collect has it in the original, 
" to serve God is to reign." 

But we must now pass on to speak of some of the 
characteristic notes of this royal service as exhibited 
by our Lord. 

(i) The Joy of the King. 

The first we shall take is that of joy. A king is 
not forced by poverty or stress of circumstances to 
work. He is free to do as he pleases, to select that 
kind of work to which he feels most drawn. His work 
is a pleasure to him. So it was to our Lord. The 
work of serving man was what the prey is to the lion 
— the satisfaction of appetite. When the disciples 
who had left Him tired and faint at Jacob's well re- 
turned, they found a great change had passed over 
Him. He looked refreshed and vigorous. They 
pressed upon Him food, however, saying, " Master, 
eat"; but He said, "I have meat to eat that ye 
know not of." Wondering, they said the one to the 
other, " Hath any man brought Him aught to eat ? " 
Our Lord then explained, " My meat is to do the 
will of Him that sent Me and to finish His work" 
(St. John iv. 34). The completion of His Father's 
work, whether by Himself or by others, was always a 
subject of rejoicing with Him (St. Luke x. 21), and 



Joy. 107 

this joy He desired His disciples to enter into and 
share. 

We ask what were the elements of this joy and 
why do we know so little of it ? Why is our 
work so far from being meat and drink, so often 
drudgery, which exhausts rather than refreshes ? 

The first answer we make is that every man, woman, 
and child that our Lord met was intensely interest- 
ing to Him. It mattered not whether he were Gali- 
lean or Jew, scholar or fisherman ; it was sufficient 
that he was a member of the human race, made in 
the Image of His Father, and therefore with infinite 
possibilities before him. We shall speak of this 
again later ; we note it here as one of the elements in 
our Lord's joy. The other element was this : He 
recognized in the life of this Samaritan woman, as 
in that of others, the work of His Father, which hav- 
ing been already carried a certain stage, it was a 
delight to complete. The building, to use one of 
Cardinal Newman's happiest illustrations of con- 
version, was considerably weakened ; it needed but 
the touch of the Master to bring it to the ground. 

How different our work would be if these two ele- 
ments were always constituent parts of it ! How 
interesting our small and scattered parish would be 
if we realized that every one within it was marked 
with the Divine Image ! How full of hope our work 
would be if we always felt that it was but to finish 
the Father's work, that even in the most stubborn 
and obstinate, a work had already been done which 



108 The Ministry of " the King." 

we were invited to complete ! And surely we need 
not Scripture to tell us that. What mean the Provi- 
dential accidents, interpositions, arrangements to 
which all life is subject unless they are divinely 
ordered preparations, only needing perhaps our 
word and touch for that decision of the will which 
is implied in every true conversion? 

(2) The Industry of the King. 

We now pass on to the consideration of another 
characteristic of the Royal Life — Industry. " The 
real, true King — the Konning — the Able-Man," as 
Carlyle reminds us, "is ever the hardest-worked 
man." Our Blessed Lord shows us this in an emi- 
nent degree. No king, however large and important 
his affairs may have been, worked as He did. We have 
seen Him as He deals with the concerns of mankind, 
planning, organizing, and perfecting ; but the affairs 
of a kingdom which is to last through all time do 
not so engross His attention as to leave Him no 
time for details. He is as much occupied — nay, 
from the Gospels it would seem more so — with the 
individual as with the race. 

In the first chapter of St. Mark's Gospel we have 
a sketch of a day's work. First, He preaches in the 
synagogue, then heals a demoniac. Directly this is 
over, He goes to the home of St. Peter, whose mother- 
in-law lay very sick of a fever. Then, in the evening, 
as soon as the sun began to go down, they brought unto 



Industry. 109 

Him all that were diseased and those that were pos- 
sessed with demons, and the whole city was gathered 
together at the door. This sketch does not pretend 
to be a full account j it is only a suggestion of some 
of those things which occupied His attention. To 
gain some conception of the physical strain, we must 
remember that every healing cost our Lord something ; 
there was a loss of force — so the original in St. 
Luke vi. 19 and viii. 46 might be translated — a loss 
of force so great as to lead to absolute exhaustion. 
St. Mark tells us that on one occasion the Apostles 
took Him " even as He was " into the ship, and that 
there He fell into a sleep so profound that the rag- 
ing of a storm and the beating of the waves into the 
ship failed to wake Him. 

This crowded, busy life which we know sometimes 
led to His having no leisure even for food (St. Mark 
vi. 31) caused even His friends to be anxious and 
alarmed, so that they went out to lay hold on Him, 
for they said, ''He is beside Himself" (St. Mark 
iii. 21). But those who knew Him best could see 
that it was very far from being of that fussy, dis- 
orderly, and irregular character which marks the fa- 
natical enthusiast. Every stage of it was marked by 
decision and forethought. It is this that St. Mark 
brings before us in the constant use of the word 
" immediately, ' ' which he employs no less than seven 
times in his first chapter. The word marks promp- 
titude rather than hurry. He went from one thing 
to another with that same quick decisiveness which 



no The Ministry of "the King." 

characterizes the lion as he darts upon his prey. 
His Blessed Mind was of course never bewildered 
by a multitude of details, never distracted by the 
variety of claims. When on His way with Jairus to 
heal the child that lay at death's door, He was not 
unmindful of the poor sufferer who crept in amongst 
the crowd that attended Him and secretly touched 
Him. And when dealing with her He still had His 
mind upon the anxious parent almost distracted with 
the terrible news just brought to him that his child 
had passed away. "Be not afraid, only believe," 
He said in quieting, encouraging tones. 

The same quiet composure, if we may venture so 
to describe it, is marked by the large spaces of time 
He gave to prayer during this crowded ministry. It 
is after so long and heavy a day's work as St. Mark 
describes, that we read of His " rising up a great 
while before day " for prayer. With us it generally 
happens that in proportion as we are men of work we 
fail in being men of prayer. We find it so difficult 
to adjust the contemplative with the active life in 
anything like proper proportions. It is perhaps for 
this reason that the active, energetic parish priest is 
apt to be hard, rough, exacting with those who seek 
his aid. " I can only give you five minutes, so state 
your business briefly," is the spirit— we almost think 
the necessary spirit — of the busy man of affairs. If 
we are saved from this by a natural, easy tempera- 
ment, we are apt to fall into the opposite mistake of 
wasting time or allowing others to waste it. We 






Discrimination in Work. in 

take no pains to check the caller's visit from being a 
gossip, have not the courage to guide the worldly 
conversation into a serious channel. We thereby 
give people the impression that we have very little 
to do ; that they can fill in time for which they have 
no occupation with a call on the Rector. It is in- 
deed difficult to steer a straight path between an 
official and a leisurely manner, to make it clear to 
our people that, though we have much to do, it is 
never so much as to prevent our being of service to 
them if that service is really required ; but we ought 
to aim at it. Some great minds have attained this 
success. Of the late eloquent Bishop of Massachu- 
setts one who knew him writes : " From this centre of 
reserve which is only another name for his consecrat- 
ing himself first of all to his Master, came his power 
to free himself from the work that was done. If he 
made a call upon a parishioner he stayed till his 
call was made, but not a moment longer. If one 
called upon him he was never impatient of neces- 
sary detention, but beyond what was necessary could 
not be delayed. If he went out among his friends 
for an evening, he was with them always as long as 
propriety required, but when the evening was over was 
away. If a friend met him in the street, the greeting 
was never hurried, was always ample, but never pro- 
longed beyond a fine sense of fitness." 

If we ask how the Bishop managed this golden 
mean, we may give the reply made by perhaps the 
hardest-worked Bishop in the American Church, who, 



112 The Ministry of "the King." 

being asked by one of his clergy what advice he 
would give to those who wished to keep up with the 
literature of the times and at the same time make 
their theological reading the first thing, said, " Get 
up early, my son." As Canon Newbolt wisely 
says : " The day takes its shape from the morning; 
the late rising means hurried prayer, and hurried 
prayer means an irritable soul — a soul deprived of 
nourishment and rest. The first hours of the day 
run one into another, and the confusion of the 
morning extends itself to the afternoon and is felt 
through the day. ' ' 

And to this we may add that he lived in the Pres- 
ence of God. It is the realization of God's Presence 
that gives that quiet calmness which makes our help 
doubly valuable. Living in that calm Retreat, we 
shall neither be hurried nor indolent. The one is im- 
possible when we remember that with Him the future 
is as clear as the past ; the other is impossible when 
we think of the unceasing energy of God as expressed 
in the words " My Father worketh hitherto and I 
work " ; and of the coming " night when no man can 
work" — that long night with all our opportunities 
gone beyond recall, and the sense that we made so 
little of our life or ministry. 

(j) The Genei'osity of the King. 

We now pass on to another characteristic — gener- 
osity — which is so bound up with royalty as to pass 



Generosity. 113 

for a proverb. " Generous as a prince " we say of 
one who has been liberal, and it is commonly felt 
that those who dwell in " kings' houses " ought to 
show a freedom from all meanness and stinginess. 

Our Lord's words and actions leave no doubt as to 
the value He attached to generosity. He bids us 
give in good measure, to lend without thought of 
repayment, to bestow our coat as well as our cloak 
on him that would take it from us. And what He 
bids us do He does Himself. Is He entertaining a 
large company of starving people, He gives them 
not merely enough, but more than enough, twelve 
baskets of broken meat bearing testimony to His 
generosity. Does a poor penitent beg of Him that 
he may be remembered when He comes to His 
Throne, He promises not remembrance, but fellow- 
ship, and this not at some future time, but on the very 
day he made his appeal. Does a poor palsied cripple 
seek relief for his body, He not only gives him this, 
but, what is far, far better, peace to his soul. Does 
Zacchseus seek but to get a sight of Him, He straight- 
way, in spite of the public opinion of Jericho, lodges 
in his house. Do the disciples, for love of Him, leave 
their homes, they shall not only have thrones and high 
honors in the eternal future, but fathers, mothers, 
brethren, sisters, yea, even lands in this life. 

His servants on whom He bestows the royal char- 
acter must show the royal spirit. They may some- 
times be obliged to say " Silver and gold have I 
none," but they will not therefore pass the beggar by; 
8 



1 14 The Ministry of " the King." 

but with the Apostle's words, " Such as I have I give 
thee" — give that relief which is both possible and 
best. 

And it may with much truth be said that as a class 
the clergy are liberal and generous with their means — 
yes, and oftentimes beyond their means. The visits 
they receive from the needy are a proof of their 
reputation in this respect. But the sacrifice of money 
is not the most difficult of those paths along which 
generosity points. The gift of time is oftentimes 
more valuable than that of money. The careful and 
patient consideration of what the case presented to 
us really demands, the labor involved in writing a 
full account to some friend who may help, or in 
searching out some person who may give what is 
most necessary, tax the spirit of generosity severely. 
It cannot be too often remembered that, whether we 
will or not, men will estimate the Church by what 
they find in us, and a little rigid economy, even in a 
trifling matter such as the recognition of small ser- 
vices, will often earn for the Church a bad name. 

But, though so generous, our Lord gives no encour- 
agement to extravagance. We must not mistake prod- 
igality for generosity. Our Lord was never wasteful. 
" Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost "was 
as much a principle of His life as the giving " full 
measure and pressed down." Whilst He welcomes 
and commends the generosity of Mary, who poured the 
precious ointment upon His head, He forbids His dis- 
ciples to give that which is holy to dogs. Covetous- 



Without Wastefulness. 115 

ness He constantly inveighs against, but when He 
would depict the sin that most commonly leads men 
astray, He gives as an illustration the son who wasted 
his substance in riotous living. And if waste be 
hateful, still more must debt be. " Owe no man any- 
thing ' ' was a lesson that St. Paul learned through the 
Church, which, like her Head, ever set before man the 
duty of freedom from every obligation save that of 
love. It must often be difficult for the majori ty of the 
clergy to maintain the dignity of the Church and yet 
keep out of debt; but the outward setting of the 
Church is of far less importance than the moral up- 
rightness which is never so noble as when it is strait- 
ened. We have known of clergy whose ability and 
kindness were widely recognized, but whose influ- 
ence was gone in consequence of the debts they owed 
to their parishioners. 

(4) Personal Tenderness. 

Another royal characteristic is personal tenderness. 
This is ever a virtue of the best kings and queens. 
We all remember the story of Queen Victoria's 
graciousness to the first Bishop of Melanesia when 
he was a little boy, personally saving him from being 
trodden under foot by her horses in some great crowd 
at Windsor ; and a story is told of thoughtful tender- 
ness that led her not only to grant a personal inter- 
view, but to appear in state to a little boy who had 
found her handkerchief, and could not be persuaded 
to give it to any one but herself. 



Ii6 The Ministry of "the King." 

This regard for the individual was always prominent 
in our Lord's dealings with men. Perhaps it might 
be true to say that He never healed two people 
in quite the same way. There was no wholesale 
treatment. A word was sufficient for one, whilst a 
touch was necessary for others. Some were healed at 
once, others gradually; some publicly, in the crowd, 
others privately, apart from it. Some were forbid- 
den to talk about their blessing; others were com- 
manded to tell their friends of it. This variety of 
method was doubtless due to the fact that He adapted 
the means to the chief end He had in view, which 
was that of persuading the sufferer that He not only 
knew the character of the disease, but that He cared 
for the patient. So, with the blind He would touch 
their eyes, with the deaf their ears ; the unclean 
leper He would touch. In this way He linked Him- 
self on, as it were, to the individual, aroused his faith 
and confidence, and made him feel He was not only 
his Physician, but his Friend. The same personal 
care leads Him to give the child back to her parents 
and the young man to his mother. Though their 
personal relation to Him was to be supreme, it was 
not to be forced, nor was it to disturb unnecessarily 
the relations of father and son, mother and daugh- 
ter. Surely in all this there is much to be pondered 
over and learned. That individual love of the Good 
Shepherd which knows all the sheep by name, which 
never allowed the interests of the masses to swallow 
up the interests of the one, which singled out the poor 



Personal Tenderness. 117 

widow amongst the wealthy, the publican amongst 
the aristocratic Pharisees — that is much needed by 
us all. Our people are treated too much as congre- 
gations. We seek to heal them in crowds ; the power 
of the individual touch is not felt. We are ever 
building larger and larger churches to accommodate 
such congregations as no single man can possibly 
deal with individually. And yet it is difficult for 
the Rector, to whom the care of souls is committed, 
to delegate this responsible work to his curates. 
The spiritual needs of any soul are too delicate to be 
dealt with by any but men of experience ; those who 
are learning their experience are obviously unfitted 
for the work of direction. Sermons, valuable as 
they are, are of too general a character to give the 
peculiar help the individual needs, and whilst most 
useful in awakening confidence in the preacher, yet 
need to be followed up by that personal applica- 
tion which the man of years can generally give. 
Perhaps some will say that there is no such need in 
the average congregation, or that it is confined to so 
few as to be easily satisfied ; but no one who has 
known anything of the life of a great city will deny 
that the moral problems of the social and business 
relations of modern life are so complicated that it 
is difficult, even for any one who wishes, to live the 
Christian Life as expressed in the New Testament 
without wounding a sensitive conscience. A mo- 
rality that suits the desk very well would excite won- 
der in the pulpit, and the principles that govern 



ii8 The Ministry of u the King." 

and are admitted by people in society would be felt 
to be grievously out of place in Church. Gross 
sins are admitted as being necessary either for health 
or for economy, and the marriage relation is regarded 
as having no higher end than mutual convenience, 
and therefore to be severed as soon as that end 
fails to be served. So men and women who are 
members of our congregation, and communicants 
who are delighted with our sermons and instructions, 
are yet living without the Peace of God because of 
some sin which nothing but the personal application 
of God's grace will remove. But, further, this in- 
dividual work needs much time and thought. It 
cannot be disposed of in a quarter of an hour. We 
need spiritual judgment to diagnose the disease, 
and patient courage to suggest the needed remedy. 
Again, not only in cases of spiritual sickness, but in 
those of sorrow, depression, and ill health, or of joy 
and some great expected happiness, there is needed 
the added stimulus which the Church knows so well 
how to give. The letter, the photograph, the small 
gift, the personal visit, the earnest prayer, all these 
may lift the sorrows and joys of men out of earth's 
atmosphere into that of heaven. Let us remember 
how much letters have done for us — e. g., the New Tes- 
tament letters — how we treasure the sacred picture 
given us at some sacred season or when suffering some 
trial, how the prayers of friends beside our bedside 
stand out still to-day in all their freshness, how the 
friendly grasp of the hand, the cheerful smile, gave 



Courageous Patience. 119 

us hope when thick clouds were about us, and, so 
remembering, go forth to do unto others as they have 
done to us. It is a Royal work, and one that spe- 
cially befits the Princes of God's Israel. The means 
are poor in themselves, merely water and clay, but 
in His hands they become rich in blessing. 

(5) Courageous Patience. 

The last Royal characteristic that we shall note is 
that of courageous patience. It is the part of a king 
to meet difficulties — nay, even apparent defeats — with 
courage and cheerfulness. President Lincoln met 
the crisis which was inevitably forced upon him with 
consistent bravery, " I see the storm coming, and I 
know that His hand is in it. If He has a place and 
work for me — and I think He has — I believe I am 
ready. I am nothing, but the truth is everything." 
So all those who have been worthy of their Royal 
position have acted. 

This virtue comes out plainly in the Life of 
our King. Places and people fail Him, but He 
shows no signs of depression or bitterness. Chora- 
zin and Bethsaida were the scenes of mighty works 
which would have brought even guilty Tyre and Sidon 
to repentance ; Capernaum, His own city, where He 
lived for the most part during His ministry, had 
seen sights which would have converted even Sodom 
and Gomorrah ; yet there was no sign in any one of 
these great cities of any general desire to follow the 
teaching of Christ. His work there, according to 



120 The Ministry of " the King." 

human standards, was a failure. Words such as none 
other spake, works such as none other did, availed 
nothing. And how did He regard the contemptu- 
ous indifference of these great cities ? With thank- 
fulness. " I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven 
and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the 
wise and understanding and didst reveal them unto 
babes : yea, Father, for so it was well pleasing in 
Thy sight " (St. Matt. xi. 26). The Divine law was 
best and wisest. That the wealthy, cultured, and 
great should reject His message whilst the simple 
accepted it was a matter of congratulation. The 
success of His work was always clear before Him. 
He could see the little seed growing up into a great 
tree, the leaven leavening the whole lump, and was 
quite content to wait. The kingdom came not with 
observation, but though invisible to the worldly eye, 
it was there, and men were pressing into it. 

It is thus that the Priest-King must meet the in- 
evitable disappointments and failures incidental to 
all spiritual work. We have done our best, yet the 
mass of the people are alienated. Well, better so 
than that they should be crowding the Church with- 
out repentance. Christ's methods are slow, but 
they succeed in the end. Success is never even 
doubtful. The sowing in tears of disappointment 
will be certainly followed by reaping in joy. Our 
duty is to be courageous and confident and to fear 
chiefly that apparent success which is not in accord 
with the Divine laws. 



DEVOTIONS. 

Blessed be Thine eyes, brighter than the sun which 
Thou didst mercifully lift up on the multitudes that came 
to Thee ; for whom Thou didst so tenderly care that 
Thou couldest by no means suffer them to go to their 
homes fasting ; but didst on two occasions, with a few 
loaves and small fishes, by a great miracle, more than 
abundantly satisfy thousands. 

Blessed be Thy venerable hands which Thou didst 
gladly stretch forth over sick and suffering poor, and by 
the touch of Thy sacred Body didst at once drive from 
them every infirmity and disease. 

Blessed be Thy most beautiful feet, which often, soiled 
with dust and weary in work for the salvation of souls, 
bore Thee hither and thither up the mountain side, and 
along the valley path, as Thou sowedst plenteously the 
Word of Life. 

Raise me up, O Lord, from the bed of sloth, that 
I may go on ever increasing in virtue. Make me to 
walk straight in the way of Thy commandments, and 
strengthen my enfeebled hands unto diligent labor. 

O God, who hast given me many opportunities of 
doing Thee service, give me grace to make use of them 
all, and to strive continually to do good in my genera- 
tion. Keep me from sloth, which would expose me to 
temptations, enfeeble my mind, destroy my usefulness. 
Make me ever sensible of the evil of delaying work, 
so that whenever I am called to give an account of my 
labors to my Great Master, I may not be found an un- 
profitable servant. 



VI. 

THE OX OR THE MINISTRY OF "THE PRIEST." 



MEDITATION. 

The Sacerdotal Character. 

For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men 
in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sac- 
rifices for sins : ... So also Christ glorified not himself to be made 
an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day 
have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art 
a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days 
of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with 
strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from 
death, and was heard in that he feared. — Hebrews v. i, j, 6, y. 

" Taken froin among men " — He not only became 
(i) Man by the Incarnation, but He lived and 

its Basis. worked as a man amongst men, became 
familiar with human thoughts and ways, experienced 
their temptations and trials, and so became the High 
Priest of Humanity. My priesthood also must be as 
broad as humanity, full of sympathy with all its needs 
and difficulties. 

" Ordained for ?nen in tilings pertaining to God, that 
(2) he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for 

its Purpose, sins" — This the one purpose of the priest- 
hood : not self-seeking-, not self-glorification, but the sal- 
vation of mankind. So He, our Great High Priest, 
"glorified not Himself to be 7nade an High Priest." So 
far as the world could see, He had none of the preten- 
sions to priesthood. He was not of the tribe of Judah, 



Meditation. 125 

and exercised no priestly functions in the Temple, yet He 
absolved men from their sins and offered the priceless 
sacrifice of Himself for their redemption. Take heed, 
O my soul, that in thy care for the symbols of thine 
office thou forget not its great purpose. Think not of 
them save as they serve the work. As it was with Him 
so with thee : the real life of thy Priesthood must be hid- 
den, and its chief expression self-sacrifice. 

"He offered up prayers and supplications with strong 
(3) crying and tears unto Him that was able 

its Work. t save Him from death " — The offering of 
the Great High Priest was not something outward with 
which He had no concern, not like that of bullocks or 
goats with whose dying cries the priest might feel no 
sympathy, but His own Spirit, His own Life, accompanied 
with crying and weeping for those who would not re- 
ceive the blessing He sought to give them. So, too, in 
the offering of the Eucharist I must be identified with it 
both in will and action ; I must bring something to it, 
and at least intercede for the needs of my people with 
earnest prayers if, alas ! the heart be too hard for tears. 

I will strive to realize more deeply the needs of the 
suffering- members of my flock and offer for 

Resolution. , , ., , . 

them daily Intercessions. 



VI. 

THE OX OR THE MINISTRY OF "THE PRIEST." 
The Priestly Office. 

" A gospel to be preached ; a kingdom embodying 
it to be built up; but first a Life to be laid down." 
" The real truth is that while He came to preach the 
Gospel, His chief object in coming was that there 
might be a gospel to preach." In such statements 
we see the importance of that aspect of our Lord's 
Life which is given us by St. Luke — that of the Priest 
— the great part that the Atoning Life of self-sacrifice 
represented by "the Ox" has played in bringing 
home the truth of God to men's lives. Without the 
human side man would know nothing, without the 
regal side his personal life would never have devel- 
oped, but without the priestly side he would have 
been lost. 

And yet important, essentially necessary as this 
work of the Priest is for the restoration of mankind, 
what a hateful sound the word itself has to many 
ears ! what prejudices it excites ! what a bad history 
it suggests ! Not only had it a bad record in the 
life of the heathen priesthood, which fattened itself 



The Priestly Office. 127 

on lies and hypocrisy, and in that of the Jewish priest- 
hood from the days of Hophni and Phinehas to that of 
Caiaphas the High Priest, but also, alas ! in that of the 
Christian Priesthood, which has had in its ranks men, 
if they could be called such, like Caesar Borgia. Is 
it any wonder that with such a history men should ab- 
hor not only the name of Priest, but his chief action, 
"the offering of the Lord" (1 Sam. ii. 17)? Can 
we be surprised that " craft " was fastened on to it 
to depict the lowest kind of selfish cunning ? Can 
we be astonished that many priests themselves prefer 
any other title than that one which marks their office 
most clearly ? They fear that men are associating 
with it ugly characteristics abhorrent to their soul. 

And yet the word lives on, and will to the end of 
the world. Nay, at a time when it was most degraded, 
there is no suggestion that either the name or the 
office it marked should be abandoned ; but, on the 
contrary, the promise is made in express terms, " I 
will raise Me up a faithful Priest that shall do accord- 
ing to that which is in Mine heart and in My mind : 
and I will build Him a sure house ; and He shall walk 
before Mine anointed for ever. " x As we know, this 
promise was fulfilled in Him whose Priesthood we 
are bidden to closely examine. 2 And He, the Head 
of the line, did not close it. St. Peter speaks of the 
Church as " a holy priesthood" St. John as a " King- 
dom of Priests" and this language of Apostles has 
been adopted by writers ever since. Our Church, as 
1 1 Sam. ii. 35. 2 Heb. iii. 1 



128 The Ministry of "the Priest" 

we know, not only has a Service for the Ordering of 
Priests, in which the Deacon is ordered to " the 
office and work of a Priest in the Church of God," 
but in her sendees she lays some emphasis upon the 
office by distinguishing its duties from those of the 
Diaconate. 

And in these modern days the word has had a 
strange advocate in the person of Thomas Carlyle, 
who, in his lectures on " Heroes and Hero Worship," 
has chosen, after depicting the Hero as Divinity and 
Prophet, to portray him as Priest. We might have 
supposed that he meant something quite different 
to that which the Church would understand by the 
word. But not at all. " The Priest," according to 
Carlyle, " presides over the worship of the people, is 
the Uniter of them with the Unseen Holy . . . 
he guides them heavenward by wise guidance through 
this earth and its work. The ideal of him is that 
he too be what we can call a voice from the Unseen 
Heaven, interpreting even as the Prophet did, and 
in a more familiar manner unfolding the same to 
men." 

Now, this does not differ essentially from the defi- 
nition given by the Roman Catholic writer Estius : 
" It is the office of a Priest to mediate between 
God and men, to confirm compacts between them by 
offering sacrifice, and by his offices to provide that 
men become partakers of the Divine Offices." Or 
from that of the Protestant Grotius : "It is the 
Priest's office to be in God's stead to the people and 



Two Aspects of Priesthood. 129 

the people's stead to God." Or from that of our 
own Bishop of Durham: "It is the part of the 
Priest to establish a connexion of man with God, 
and, secondarily, of man with man." The layman 
and the Bishop, the Roman Catholic and the Prot- 
estant, all understand the same thing by the word, 
and all feel also its permanent associations with the 
life of mankind. As the idea of kingship, however 
expressed, is necessary to the progress of society, so, 
too, that of Priesthood. Let us not then be ashamed 
of the Order in which it has been expressed — an Or- 
der whose long list of names contains some of the 
greatest in human history. Nay, let us rather try to 
redeem it from all the false and poor conceptions 
that have gathered round it, and demonstrate afresh 
in our own lives its beauty and dignity. We shall 
consider it in its two aspects — the Divine and Hu- 
man — the Priest in his life towards God, the Priest 
in his life towards man. 

Part I. 

The Priest in his Life towards God. 

(a) The Priest's Preparation. 

In the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
we are told many things about the Priest, not the least 
important of which is that " he is taken from among 
men," and has had a real human experience, know- 
ing what it is to be "compassed with infirmity." 
This, that he must be human, might at first seem to 
9 



130 The Ministry of "the Priest." 

be a consideration scarcely calling for any attention, 
and yet many a priesthood has been a failure because 
it has lacked the elements of true humanity. There 
is something very significant that our Lord's prepa- 
ration for the Priesthood took place in Nazareth and 
in the carpenter's shop. His life at home with His 
elder half-brothers and sisters, and in the village 
where His daily task brought Him into contact with 
all kinds of people, was in constant touch with men. 
So, tried in all the ordinary ways by which men 
are tried, by the weaknesses and sins of others, by 
their bad temper, idleness, ill-natured gossip, rough 
coarseness, and, above all, by their hard, dull un- 
spirituality, He became personally acquainted with 
their needs, which formed the subject of His unceas- 
ing prayers. He of course needed not any prepara- 
tion for the office of His High Priesthood, but chose 
this that by His example He might teach us what 
was most important. 

So we ask ourselves as we look back on the time 
before our ordination whether we can in any true 
sense be said "to be taken from among men." 
Jesus Christ waited till He was thirty before He be- 
gan His Ministry, and yet we, with only a small 
experience of what the life of men really is, are im- 
patient to hurry over one of the most precious years 
of our life, that of the Diaconate — precious because 
it should give us something of that experience of 
the world which in after years we shall sorely need. 
The acquaintance with the sick, poor, and impotent 



The Priest 's Preparation. 131 

people of the parish to which our duty as Deacon 
calls us, will, or at least ought to, give us that sym- 
pathy with suffering Humanity which is essential to 
the life of a Priest ; and not sympathy only, but a 
readiness of resource, a wise and gentle manner, a 
strong, courageous spirit, which, though it may feel 
nervous, never yields to cowardice. The Priest must 
first be a man, a man in sympathy with the ways of 
men; knowing not only their language, but their 
thoughts and intentions ; having experience of their 
temptations, trials, and difficulties ; realizing the 
particular hindrances and obstacles which other men, 
young and old, find in their profession, trade, or busi- 
ness. And this because his work will lie amongst 
men. He is to offer for men, and how can he do 
this unless he knows what they most need? From 
this it is obvious that a seminary training and a 
large acquaintance with theological books are not en- 
tirely adequate. Starting out with but these is like 
the doctor starting out without a hospital training. 
Hence the Church in her wisdom compels at least a 
year's preparation for the Priesthood, and, as we 
have noticed, prescribes as one of its chief duties 
that of seeking out the sick and poor — a most valua- 
ble introduction to the life of the Priesthood, the 
chief element of which is sympathy. 

(a) The Priest's Call and Conviction of Sin. 

For thirty years our Lord prepared Himself, and 
then the call came for the Christ to be endowed with 



132 The Ministry of "the Priest T 

the Priesthood, for, as the inspired writer says, " Christ 
glorified not Himself to be made a high priest; but 
He that spake unto Him, ' Thou art My Son, this day 
have I begotten thee ' " ; as He saith in another place, 
" Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Mel- 
chizedek." z The call came through the mission of 
the Baptist, to whom the Lord at once repaired that 
in the waters of Baptism He might receive the 
consecration of His Father. The place and time 
were alike strange. The place was Jordan, whose 
waters were now being used for the Baptism of Re- 
pentance ; the time was one of those crowded days 
when " the whole land seemed moved to give up its 
sinners to the discipline of repentance ; the whole 
city poured out its evil livers to the new and austere 
guide of penitence." Why should He receive the 
Priesthood then and there ? From His own words it 
would seem as though He wished to begin His Min- 
istry with that satisfaction of the Divine law which 
was made by the confession of sin. " Before de- 
scending into the river," writes Professor Godet, 
" the converts who came to John for Baptism made 
confession of their sins to him. Jesus presenting 
Himself, like any other Israelite should have done 
the same. In what did His confession consist ? If 
there is a human feeling alien to the heart of Jesus — 
and there is one, and one only — it is that of peni- 
tence. He made a confession like Isaiah, Daniel, 
Jeremiah, laying before God the sins of the nation, 
* Heb. v. 5. 



The Priest's Call and Conviction of Sin. 133 

and humbling Himself for them in its name; but 
with this difference — that Jesus, in using the word 
Me, did not use it with any sense of personal par- 
ticipation in the general sinfulness, but only under 
the influence of the profoundest sympathy. . . . 
This was the spectacle which, a little later, moved 
John the Baptist to utter these sublime words, 
' Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sins of the world.' He had recognized in Jesus, on 
the day of His Baptism, that sacred Victim Who, 
while separating between Himself and sin by a pro- 
found abyss as far as His will was concerned, was at 
that same moment making the sin of the whole race 
His own, in respect of solidarity between Himself 
and them." It was after this confession that the 
heaven was opened, the voice heard saying, " This 
is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," and 
the Dove seen abiding upon Him. The humiliation 
was followed by a great exaltation. 

It is not otherwise with the Priest of God. The 
servant is not greater than his Master. The Valley 
of Humiliation must be entered before the vision of 
God can be seen or the sense of sonship received. 
We must feel with Isaiah, " Woe is me, for I am a 
man of unclean lips." In our measure we ought to 
know something of the Slough of Despond, and this 
not merely in the recognition that the work is al- 
together beyond our powers, but that we are too 
sinful to have anything to do with it. The nearness 
to God which our ordination emphasizes should bring 



134 The Ministry of "the Priest." 

about " a new and more exacting standard of sin and 
holiness ; such as would lead us to refer to . . . 
sins of temper or of self-assertion in terms which 
the blunted sensibilities of men of the world only 
apply to the grossest acts of wickedness, to cry with 
the Saint of old, ' I have heard of Thee, by the 
hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee ; 
wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and 
ashes.' "* 

We know indeed that there are some men who 
would consider this a very morbid condition for one 
who is entering upon the joys of the ministerial life. 
With them — and they are respectable, right-minded 
people, fulfilling their every-day duties to their fami- 
lies and to society with a sufficiency for which the 
world speaks well of them — any passionate agitation 
about the state of their souls they consider unreal 
and affected; but, as a man of letters with no pre- 
tensions to be a religious teacher rightly adds, 
" such men may be amiable in their private life, 
good neighbors and useful citizens, but be their talents 
what they may, they could not write a 'Pilgrim's 
Progress ' or ever reach the Delectable Mountains, or 
even be conscious that such mountains exist. ' ' 2 Now, 
there are perhaps few that could tell the story of the 
soul as Bunyan has done ; but alas for that Priest 
who has had no vision of the Delectable Mountains, 
who has not been able to catch the sounds of the 

1 Cf. Liddon's " Life of E. B. Pusey," p. 98. 

2 Froude's " Life of Bunyan." 



Means to Conviction of Sin. 135 

Better Land ; alas for that Priest who, when brought 
face to face with a soul under conviction of sin, 
knows so little of his own inner life as to he unable 
to offer any help beyond a recommendation of change 
of scene or climate ! It may be that we cannot feel 
about our own sin as the Psalmists have done, it may 
be that we cannot yet use the words of the Saints in 
our confessions of sin, it may be that we are still 
far from feeling with John Keble that " self-abhor- 
rence is a duty, a necessity, and a joy " ; but we can at 
least avoid the spirit of self-complacency, the spirit 
which urges us to be thinking about marriage, set- 
tling in, and the outward comforts of our expected 
sphere of work when we ought to be sounding the 
depths of our own soul. And can we not do more ? 
If we find our spiritual condition generally hard and 
insensible to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, if 
our sense of personal sinfulness is unreal, can we not, 
ought we not, to at once take counsel with some holy 
man of God who may direct us in the paths of peni- 
tence, lead us to the waters of repentance ? Is not 
Christ in that significant " us " ? "It becometh us" 
not " Me," joining all His Priests with Himself, and 
at least suggesting that they too should fulfil all right- 
eousness, as He did, by submitting to the discipline 
of Penitence. Such at least has been the way of the 
Saints of God, however different their schools of 
thought may have been. They may not all have ex- 
pressed themselves in the same way, but all, whether 
it be Charles Simeon or Edward Pusey, James Han- 



136 The Ministry of "the Priest" 

nington or John Keble, John Wesley or Lancelot 
Andrewes, went into the Valley of Humiliation, into 
the Waters of Repentance, and so were able to preach 
the Gospel of Repentance to others, having realized 
it in their own experience. Clergy are everywhere 
complaining that their congregations have little or 
no sense of sin ; it may be that they themselves have 
yet to learn its shame and bitterness. 

So much for ourselves. The Example of our Lord 
carries us further. If we are faithful priests, we carry 
not our own sins only, but those of our own peo- 
ple. Here is one who is grieving the Church of God 
by drunkenness, another by covetousness, another by 
pride of intellect or birth. These sins, it is possible, 
are never confessed to God by those who daily com- 
mit them. The Priest takes them to God. Then, 
again, there is generally some one sin that besets the 
parish as a whole ; perhaps it is self-complacency, or 
meanness, or indifference to His worship. This we 
take to our God, not in the spirit of pride, but deep 
abasement; take it daily in the words of the General 
Confession ; and so, like Ezra, it may be that we 
bring upon our people the power of the Holy Ghost, 
convicting them of their sins. Our devotion stirs 
theirs, our penitence moves theirs. " Now, when Ezra 
had prayed and when he had confessed, weeping and 
casting himself down before the house of God, there 
assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congre- 
gation of men and women and children, for the people 
wept very sore " (Ezra x. 1). 



The Priest's Discipline. 137 

(c) The Priest's Discipline. 

From Jordan Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the 
wilderness. Driven, for His delight was to be with 
the sons of men. He never left them save but this 
once for any length of time. He would not have 
withdrawn Himself now but by the constraining 
power of the Holy Ghost. He went away for forty 
days, the number being, as Archbishop Trench has 
told us, the signature of penalty, of affliction, of 
the confession or punishment of sin (see Gen. vii. 
4, 12 ; Num. xiv. $$ ; Deut. xxv. 3). So Moses con- 
fessed the sin of his people for forty days, and Ezekiel 
bears the transgression of Judah for forty days. The 
period being one of penitence, necessarily calls for 
fasting, our Lord showing by His self-endured chas- 
tisement of the Body His shame and horror for the 
sins of the flesh by which men are defiled. 

There is much that is very suggestive here to the 
Priest. In the first place, we note our Lord's retreat 
in the wilderness is after His endowment with the 
Priestly Office. It presents a striking contrast to the 
days that so often follow our ordination — days of 
travel, worry, settling in, or active work, the Priest 
not seldom going forth on the very day of his ordina- 
tion to make proof of his ministry. So much that 
might have been preserved is lost, the sense of com- 
mission is weakened, and the awe on being invested 
with the awful supernatural powers of the priesthood 
dulled. 



138 The Ministry of " the Priest." 

And, secondly, we consider the self-imposed disci- 
pline of Christ. How much that has to say to the 
Priest ! It is not simply a duty to the body that it 
may be a fitting instrument for the sacred duties that 
will fall to it, but it is here specially shown as " a 
sign of mourning, an expression of sorrow and peni- 
tence." Fasting, then, is a " sign of sorrow which 
we may believe is precious in God's sight. Just as 
when a man has heard bad news he cannot eat, it 
turns him sick, so in fasting we try to reproduce the 
involuntary result of sorrow in a voluntary way, and 
endeavor to make ourselves feel that sensation which 
sorrow, if it were real, would tend to produce. The 
sight of a Saviour suffering, and of a world's sin, the 
remembrance of the sins of the parish committed to 
our care, even more the thought of our own sins, 
should all tend to give point to fasting, while we 
feel that in the presence of the great mysteries which 
gather round sin and the Atonement, fasting is at least 
an attitude of reverence." 1 Now, the Fridays, the 
Ember Days, and Lent give special opportunity and 
help for such expression of sorrow. We can then 
indulge our desire to express our shame for sin by 
self-denial without occasioning remark, for even the 
world is now beginning to expect that the followers 
of the Crucified will fast on Fridays and in Lent. 

Thirdly, let us not pass by the feature of silence 
which characterized our Lord's life in the wilderness, 
which is perhaps as important in its teaching as 
1 Newbolt, " Speculum Sacerdotum," p. 63. 



Self-imposed Discipline. 139 

His fasting. By this He atoned for " the idle, care- 
less, and unscrupulous use of the great gift of 
speech that marks, alas ! the life of us all. Think 
of the injustice, the pain, the anxiety, the anger, 
that spring up round reckless talk; think of the 
confusion and uncertainty that come by inaccu- 
rate repetition of inaccurate reports ; think of the 
loosening of mutual trust, the loss of real interest, 
the rarity of thorough sympathy, because one has to 
doubt the justice, the trustworthiness of so much 
current talk ; think of the lowering of the standard 
of truth," and then feel the need not only of His 
silence which marked the end as distinctly as the 
beginning of His Ministry, but of His sympathy with 
it by His voluntarily entering upon it as occasion 
offered. The late Archbishop of Canterbury told the 
Head-masters of the great English Public Schools 
during their Quiet Day how he had on one occasion 
submitted himself during a retreat to the rule of 
silence with much prejudice against it, but was 
afterwards constrained to express his sense of its 
value. But if we do it, let us do it not merely 
because of its advantages, but, as our Blessed Lord 
did it, as an act of atonement for the sins of speech. 
And, lastly, we call to mind the Discipline of 
Temptation, the most mysterious aspect of the Forty 
Days in the wilderness. If He, our Captain, has met 
the Tempter's power, let us not fear to encounter it 
when we are led by the Spirit of God to meet it. 
It may be that with our humblest parishioner we 



140 The Ministry of " the Priest." 

may be called on to face real want, to be really 
pinched for some of the necessaries of life, and that 
to us the alternative may be proposed of Trust in the 
bare word of God or action which means disloyalty 
to Him ; it maybe that an opportunity is given us of 
creating a great impression by some startling act on 
our part, and so in a moment gaining that confidence 
of the Parish which otherwise can only be won by 
much suffering ; it may be that we can disarm serious 
opposition by a very trifling departure from the road 
of strict devotion to the honor of God. These crises 
of faith may come upon us ; we may feel sorely 
troubled and harassed, and much pulled down in our 
spiritual strength, through the poisonous atmosphere 
of the Tempter ; but let us remember that Tempta- 
tion is the price we must pay for the unspeakable 
blessing of helping others. " A High Priest tempted 
in all points like as we are " is the model of our 
Priesthood. A Priest without experience of temp- 
tation would be like a doctor who had never known 
illness. Nay, further, it is only through temptation 
successfully resisted that we win virtue. As the sav- 
age feels, when looking upon his prostrate victim, that 
his foe's strength has passed into him, so the saint, 
as in the might of the Spirit he conquers some hide- 
ous form of evil, knows that the victory has brought 
him that strength which made the temptation so fas- 
cinating. As has been well said, " the wilderness 
is the place where the Church's saints have been 
formed. They have become strong in the Lord and in 



The Priest 's Offering. 141 

the power of His might, not by being shielded from 
temptation, but by meeting its fiercest assaults." 

(d) The Priest 's Offering. 

(1) In Fellowship. 

We have seen our High Priest confessing and 
bearing sin. We now contemplate Him as He offers 
for sin. It is surely full of significance that His 
first offering is in fellowship with men. It is as 
though from the very outset He would associate them 
with Him. As in the confession for sin He said, 
"It becometh Us," so in the offering for sin His 
language is, " With desire I have desired to eat this 
Passover with you before I suffer." He wishes to 
bring others into fellowship with Him in that great 
act so far as is possible. It is true, as we shall see, 
that He was obliged to tread the wine-press alone, 
that none of the people were with Him, that the 
help that was done upon earth He did it Himself \ 
but yet some communion with Him was possible 
even in the act of the mystical breaking of His 
Body and the shedding of His Blood, and to this 
He invites them with much longing. We see the 
High Priest of Humanity lifting up the great sacri- 
fice which is to redeem the world, but in union with 
Nature, whose fruits He uses ; with the Jewish 
Church, whose great service of sacrificial Thanks- 
giving is made the foundation of the Eucharist, and 
with the Apostles, whose participation He lovingly 



142 The Ministry of " the Priest." 

invites. So here there is a note of triumph running 
through it all. The exhortations are of a peculiarly 
uplifting character. He is going to leave them, but 
they will be blessed by His going. In the world they 
will have trouble, but let them be of good cheer, for 
the world is conquered. In the Father's house are 
many mansions ; had it not been so He would have 
told them. So encouraged, stimulated, and uplifted, 
they break forth into the great Hymn of Praise, " O 
give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious : because 
His mercy endureth forever. Let Israel now confess 
that He is gracious, and that His mercy endureth 
forever. ' ' 

The Priest also makes his offering in fellowship 
with his people. The Eucharist, in which the prayers, 
aspirations, and hopes of his people are gathered up, 
in union with which alms and oblations are offered; 
the Eucharist, the very language of which attests this 
fellowship — " we, Thy humble servants, do celebrate 
and make here before Thy Divine Majesty with these 
Thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto Thee, the 
Memorial Thy Son hath commanded us to make " — 
is the Priest's chief joy and comfort. However often 
he may feel that he is standing alone, however often 
he may feel solitary, depressed, out of heart, here in 
this service with the faithful few gathered about him 
he feels the exhilaration which comes of assured sym- 
pathy. He knows he is engaged in a tremendous Act, 
that of offering up his own life and the life of the 
parish in union with the Life of the Lamb, Whom he 



Offering in Fellowship. 143 

sees standing as It had been slain, standing marked 
with all the signs of that great sacrifice still fresh 
upon It; but the presence of others sustains him. 
And this human presence and sympathy does more. 
It quickens his faith in the Divine Presence ; pre- 
pares him, as it were, for the great manifestation in 
" the breaking of bread " ; a sense of victory and tri- 
umph comes over him as he realizes that the same 
Blessed Jesus who stood by St. Paul and said, " Be 
of good cheer," is with him too, giving the same 
encouragement and assisting him to make the offer- 
ing perfect. So he throws into that Great Oblation, 
in which everything seemed to be lost, his own life and 
that of his people, praying that the Father may accept 
it as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. How im- 
portant, if this is to be the spirit of his Eucharist, 
that it should be expressed in warm and earnest 
tones ! How necessary, whether there be few or 
many, that the celebration should always be " high," 
helped, where possible, with the uplifting strains of 
music ! How necessary, too, that it should be offered 
in the spirit of lowliest penitence, expressed, when 
possible, in the ancient rule of fasting ! How can 
any one be in fellowship with that act of supreme 
sacrifice and oblation who comes fresh to it from 
indulgence of mind or body ? Does it not demand 
as essential elements of preparation, silence, absti- 
nence, and such lowly spirit of devotion as was in- 
dicated by the washing of the disciples' feet? So 
the Priest teaches himself and his flock. Whilst 



144 The Ministry of " the Priest" 

offering every inducement to all to join with him in 
making the great oblation of body, soul, and spirit, 
he is so much concerned with the spirit in which 
they should make it that he enjoins upon all re- 
pentance, self-denial, and brotherly love. And the 
Eucharist being so much to him, he has it as often as 
the devotion of his people will allow. He cannot 
act in this apart from them. But there are special 
occasions when the spirit of thanksgiving or sacrifice 
runs high with one or another of his flock, or in the 
parish generally, or there is some great need, indi- 
vidual or parochial, calling for special intercession; 
these he uses as helps in showing how the Eucharist 
answers every experience of life. So gradually in 
the mind of the Parish it becomes naturally the great 
act of devotion and worship, and people are led to 
feel that every other service is feebler in its ability 
to express and interpret as well as satisfy every hu- 
man need, when set beside this alone founded on 
the Lord's command. 

{d) The Priest's Offering. 
(2) In Isolation. 

From the Church of God our Lord passed into the 
loneliness of the dark shades of the garden of olives. 
And there none can follow Llim. None can share 
His thoughts, none can even sympathize, for none 
can understand the great Mystery of His sorrow. 
Nor can we hope to penetrate into the heart of that 



Offering in Isolation. 145 

great anguish of spirit which expressed itself in the 
Bloody Sweat. But we do know this, that our Lord 
was tempted, for when He was at the place He said 
to the three Apostles who were allowed to go as far 
as the garden with Him, " Pray that ye enter not 
into temptation." And we can well imagine that 
the temptation was to stay the progress of those events 
which would inevitably lead to the Crucifixion. Had 
our Lord chosen, He knew that all could be pre- 
vented ; not simply all that concerned Himself — the 
Scourging, the Cross, the Death — but, what was still 
more bitter, all that concerned others. The suicide 
of Judas, the hypocrisy and the blasphemy of the 
High Priest, the false and lying action of the Jewish 
Church, the cowardice of Pontius Pilate, the cruelty 
of the people, the desertion of the disciples, the 
denial of St. Peter, the grief of His Blessed Mother, 
all these would follow if the Tragedy which had 
now begun were not stayed, and these things would 
be done by His own people, by those whom He 
came to save, by those to whom He had ministered. 
As Bishop Westcott says, " the burden of shame 
might in'itself have been cheerfully borne, but when 
the shame which was inflicted witnessed to the deg- 
radation of a beloved race, each pang was as the 
death-blow of a great hope." Hence the appeal, 
" Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me ; 
nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done." 

We hope it may not be considered presumptuous 
to suggest that the shadow of that great Agony, so 
10 



146 The Ministry of " the Priest." 

far — and perhaps so far alone — as it may be viewed 
as a temptation, sometimes falls upon the Priest. 
He too passes from the Celebration, where holy 
fellowship, the strains of uplifting music, the en- 
couraging words of the Gospel, and, above all, the 
Sacred Presence of his Lord, promise victory and 
ultimate triumph, to the solitude of his own study, 
where the conflict, which he knows to be imminent, 
looks very different. He sees on the one side peace 
and quiet ; on the other, storm and tempest. On 
that letter which he must now write everything de- 
pends." On the one hand, success, popularity, and 
the congratulations of his friends on his having got 
over a very puzzling difficulty ; on the other hand, 
failure, hatred, abandonment, and loneliness. Nay, 
worse, the income will be reduced, the children's 
education curtailed, and perchance distrust creep 
into his own family. Why should he take this ac- 
tion which he knows will be so unpopular ? Why 
offend the only people who can support the Church ? 
A question of principle ! But you cannot live on 
principles, says the Tempter. To repel the adul- 
terer from Communion, to preach fearlessly the hated 
Truth, to write and refuse the proffered help because 
offered in the spirit of Simon as a bribe, to do this 
with hungry rivals on every side hoping to gain ac- 
cession to their Churches — Avhy must it be ? Why not 
wait till the moral offender has been presented by 
some of the parishioners, why act on private infor- 
mation ? Why not wait till the people have grown 



On the Cross. 147 

to like the Truth? So the Tempter argues, and the 
Priest replies : Because I must, at all hazards, be 
true to myself; the matter is on my conscience. 
As Luther said in a like trial, "It is neither safe 
nor prudent to do aught against conscience. Here 
stand I; I can do no other; God help me." Yes, 
as Carlyle adds in his comment on this passage : 
" That is the greatest moment in the modern his- 
tory of men," when, indeed, does he show higher 
strength than when, with disaster before him, he 
quietly offers up all he has and all he counts dear — 
his wife's happiness, which must be pierced through 
with a sword; his friend's confidence, which will be 
strained beyond bearing; his congregation, which 
will be scattered far and wide; his home comforts 
— when all are offered up? But he can do no other, 
so the letter is written, the irrevocable word is 
spoken, and the parish is in a blaze. 

(d) The Priest's Offering 
C?) On the Cross. 

The sound of the approaching footsteps was the 
outward sign to our Lord that all was to be accom- 
plished as predicted. From that moment His whole 
attitude is changed. There is no shrinking from 
the bitter cup, no appeal that it pass away if it be 
the Father's will. He takes it firmly with both 
Hands, as it were, and drains it to the very dregs. All 
is offered on the Altar of the Cross with superb 



148 The Ministry of " the Priest." 

Majesty and Dignity. The words to Judas; the look 
which sent the rough mob backwards ; the silence 
before the High Priest's Court, only broken by the 
short prophetic utterance of the great future coming 
in the clouds of heaven ; the silence before Herod, 
and the brief, pointed colloquies with the Roman gov- 
ernor, which awed even his blood-stained conscience ; 
the words to the holy women who bewailed Him ; 
the refusal of the opiate ; the seven great sayings — all 
showed " the complete and exhaustive concurrence 
in the Father's judgment upon sin " which He was 
bearing, all showed the divine strength in which He 
made the great offering. Hanging between earth 
and heaven, separated from men, and, so far as the 
sense of it went — though only so far — separated from 
God during the terrible darkness, He yet offered with 
a full consent the sacrifice of all to the Father. 

It is not otherwise with the Priest. He is not 
above his Master. He goes forth from his solitude 
to his parish duties knowing that his action is the 
talk of the place. The local press is delighted with 
the opportunity of an increased sale. Coarse head- 
lines give to the world an exaggerated version of that 
which the Priest faced in solitude. He notices 
friends avoid him, and those with whom he transacts 
necessary business speak shortly and sharply. Even 
those who can see his side consider he has made a 
great mistake, and talk of possible resignation. He 
is tried and condemned at the teas and dinner-tables 
of his parishioners, congregations are thin, choir- 



The Power of the Offering. 149 

men absent themselves, and the bolder ones walk 
out of Church. And then perhaps the anxiety and 
worry bring him to his bed. He is seriously ill. 
He is crucified, as it were, unable to move or think 
in great bodily pain. Man's abandonment, empha- 
sized by weakness, seems to betoken God's abandon- 
ment. He can frame no prayers, find no comfort in 
the Scriptures, but yet holds himself still upon God, 
waiting, waiting, to pass through Death to Resurrec- 
tion. For the Priest makes the offering in confi- 
dence. However much he may fear at times, yet, 
having made the offering, he does not wish to recall 
it. He believes in the redemptive power of suffer- 
ing, and he has good reason to do so. People may 
think such a course mistaken, may hate it, but in their 
hearts they admire it. Worldly men, like the Roman 
centurion, see in it a feature of the Divine life. Bad 
men, like the penitent robber, are turned by it to 
seek salvation. The two or three who really under- 
stand are strengthened. The cowardly, like Joseph 
of Arimathsea, become brave and make an open pro- 
fession of the truth that men have cavilled at. The 
Priest has made his offering, and already a new way is 
opened out towards God. 

We have noticed an extreme case. Not all have 
to pass through such a fire as I have tried to 
describe. With some the Cross is simply suffer- 
ing for the work's sake. Examples readily occur. 
The Bishop of Truro, speaking of the inner grace 
of the Apostolic Succession, told of a young 



150 The Ministry of "the Priest" 

priest " who gave up his life in a poor district of 
London, his body worn out by ceaseless toil, his con- 
stitution sapped by pastoral zeal. He watched by 
the bed of a sick boy who refused all food and 
medicine except at the hand of this young curate. 
Two nights he sat up by that bedside, and at last the 
sacrifice was completed. The boy lived ; the priest 
died. This bearing the burdens of others in our own 
hearts," the Bishop goes on to say, " this pouring 
out of ourselves on the altar of Christ and all else 
that made a man a priest, was drawn from the single 
priesthood of Jesus, the Bishop of souls." 

{d) The Priest's Offering. 
0^) In the Heavenly Places. 

Our great High Priest passed away from the Cross 
to take the Life which He had won through death 
within the heavenly places. There in the highest 
heaven before the Throne stands a Lamb as it had 
been slain; not now the subject of cruel and wanton 
blasphemies, but the centre of universal adoration. 
Only one theme is the subject of the chorus of 
praise and glad thanksgiving of the spiritual In- 
telligence, that which is expressed in the words 
" Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power 
and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and 
glory and blessing. ' ' " He is now highly exalted, and 
given " a Name which is above every name ; that at 
1 Rev. v. 12. 



In the Heavenly Places. 151 

the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things 
in heaven and things in earth, and things under the 
earth." x 

And what are the characteristic features that mark 
the life of our great High Priest after the victory- 
was won? Something we can tell from what the Gos- 
pels narrate of the Risen Lord. He does not take 
vengeance upon His enemies in the hour of His 
Triumph. He does not discard His cowardly follow- 
ers. He does not make any great or startling display 
of power. He gives peace and a fresh commission 
to His Church, pardon to the disciple who denied 
Him, special help to the doubter, and fresh power to 
all who shall go forth in His Name. 

The Priest, like his Master, emerges from the 
struggle triumphant. In some way or other the stand 
taken is vindicated, the principle contended for is 
approved, the Church that was so attacked begins to 
have a reputation which others that once were more 
flourishing envy. The tide turns. Success sweeps 
in like a flood, and the persecuted priest is the hero 
of the Diocese. How will he now behave ? Suc- 
cess in some ways is more difficult to bear than fail- 
ure. We see Lacordaire on his knees before the 
crucifix with the tears streaming down his face, trying 
to withstand the delirious effects of those great ser- 
mons at Notre Dame crowded with the intelligence 
and fashion of Paris, and we feel that his position 
is the right one. We can only learn from Jesus how 
1 Phil. ii. 9, 10. 



152 The Ministry of "the Priest." 

to behave ourselves when we are suddenly exalted 
and find all men speaking well of us. And what do 
we learn ? 

First, we notice His retirement. Only ten times 
in forty days did He appear, and in five out of 
these ten to individuals or small groups of individ- 
uals. So the Priest keeps himself, as it were, in the 
background. He is more reserved and quiet, keeps 
himself away from the great world that is now pre- 
pared to flatter him. 

Secondly, we note that our Lord's chief thoughts 
are on the kingdom of God, " being seen of them 
forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the 
Kingdom of God." So, too, the Priest is occupied 
chiefly with plans for building up the parish life and 
developing it. He is not thinking of himself, of 
what returns he shall make to those who stood aloof 
or were openly hostile ; but how he can make the suc- 
cess which has come to him increase the efficiency 
of his work. He does not give up the workers that 
abandoned him, but shows them his confidence and 
trust by giving them their old duties back again ; 
those who still hang back, half doubting, he seeks 
to win. The depressed and faint-hearted he gently 
chides, showing from the Scriptures that no good 
work can be done without sacrifice. But His great 
joy is in the Eucharist and the services which are 
linked on to it. As the years go on he lives more 
towards God than towards man, or, to express it 
more truly, he spends more time in prayer and the 






In the Heavenly Places. 



153 



worship of God, having learned in his severe trial 
how efficacious they are. And so he progresses till 
the call comes to resign his charge to others and to 
go forth to that fuller life where there are offices 
which fittingly suit " the full-grown energies of 
heaven." 






DEVOTIONS. 

By the mystery of Thy holy Incarnation, by Thy holy 
Nativity and Circumcision, by Thy Baptism, Fasting, 
and Temptation, Good Lord, deliver us. 

By Thine Agony and Bloody Sweat, by Thy Cross and 
Passion, by Thy precious Death and Burial, by Thy 
glorious Resurrection and Ascension, and by the Com- 
ing of the Holy Ghost, Good Lord, deliver us. 

I bless and give Thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, 
Thou great High Priest, for Thy manifold mercies to 
men, for Thy gifts of pardon to the penitent, Thy words 
of righteous anger to the obstinate, that they might turn 
unto Thee with true contrition ; but, above all, for the 
offering of Thyself upon the Altar, the Cross. Mercifully 
grant that I may always most thankfully receive this, 
Thine inestimable benefit, and daily endeavor myself 
to follow the blessed steps of Thy most holy life. 

Collects for Good Friday and the Sunday before 
Easter. 

The Hymn: " When I survey the Wondrous Cross." 



VII. 



THE OX OR THE MINISTRY OF "THE PRIEST. 



MEDITATION. 

The Great Commission. 

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, 
when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for 
fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto 
them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed 
unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, 
when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be 
unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And 
when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, 
Receive ye the Holy Ghost : Whose soever sins ye remit, they are 
remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are 
retained. — St. John xx. 19-23. 

" When the doors were shut where the disciples were 
(!) assembled for fear of 'the Jews, came Jesus 

The Disciples, and stood in the ?nidst" — Here were men 
who had forsaken their Master in the hour of trial, and 
one who had thrice denied Him ! " Afraid of the Jews," 
because afraid of their conscience stained by sin. They 
had heard He was alive, but if He came what would He 
say to those who had been such false friends ? How soon 
their fears are removed, for He appears and at once 
gives them that peace which will reassure them and 
make them feel that all is forgiven. I, too, have been 
cowardly, deserting Christ when things were said which 
ought not. I have no right to be trusted with any great 
office ; but to me also come the words " Peace be unto 



Meditation. 157 

you." It is in the strength of that abiding assurance 
that I can exercise my ministry. 

"As my Father hath sent Me, even so send I you " — 
( 2 ) How strange ! We know what a Divine 

The Commis- Mission He had, we know with what au- 
slon * thority He spake, what authority He ex- 

ercised both in loosing and retaining sins, and this He 
now gives to His Church to be used in His Name by 
her Priests. With what deep feelings the Apostles must 
have received their commission to be His ambassadors ! 
And shall I, so unworthy as I am, take it as though it were 
a mere form of words ? An ambassador of the King of 
kings — that is my position. Let me take good heed that 
I represent His Divine Majesty with dignity, firmness, 
wisdom, and infinite sympathy. 

"He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive 
(3) ye the Holy Ghost" — As the question arose 

its Power. i n their minds, " Who is sufficient for 
these things, these awful duties " ? it was at once quieted 
by the stirring within them of the Holy Ghost. "Our 
sufficiency is of God," was their answer. The Breath 
of the new Risen Life filled their whole being, and they 
felt that though it was but in earthen vessels, yet the 
treasure was there. So we, too, might well shrink from 
the awful responsibility of pronouncing in His Name the 
Absolution of sinners, were it not for the fact that He 
who gives the commission gives also at the same time 
grace to fulfil it. 

Help me, O Lord, so to express the dignity of mine 
office that those whom I serve may always 

Aspiration. . \ f 

realize that it is not I but Christ who 
worketh in me. 



VII. 

THE OX OR THE MINISTRY OF "THE PRIEST." 

The Priestly Office. 

We have seen from the definitions of Priesthood 
laid down by theologians that the Priest's office is 
not simply one representing the people towards God, 
but also one representing God to the people. He 
is an ambassador charged with the tremendous re- 
sponsibilities of binding and loosing as well as the 
blessed privilege of blessing. These duties are his 
because they belong to the great High Priest. We 
shall do here as we have hitherto done : first consider 
how He exercises these powers, and then learn prin- 
ciples for our own guidance. 

Part II. 

The Priest in his Life towards Man. 

(a) The Ministry of Benediction. 

This, naturally, is our first thought. Our Lord's 
whole life was a Benediction. That was, as He re- 
minded the overzealous Apostles, St. James and St. 
John, the spirit in which He came and which they 






The Ministry of Benediction. 1 59 

were to show. ' ' The Son of Man is not come to 
destroy men's lives but to save them." That also 
was the purpose of His Father, " for God sent not 
His Son into the world to condemn the world, but 
that the world through Him might be saved " (St. 
Johniii. 17). So it is that the spirit of benediction, 
of gentle, loving treatment, of care for men's bodies 
as well as their souls, of interest in their daily joys as 
well as in their sorrow, is one that shines out through 
all His ministry. His first miracle was wrought to 
add to the joys of a country wedding ; the first exer- 
cise of His ministry towards men was to adorn and 
beautify by His Presence that estate which is the 
foundation of family and national life. In the same 
spirit He takes the children into His arms, softly 
praying for them, gently blessing them. So, too, 
His attitude towards the sick and the sorrowing is one 
breathing out benediction in every expression. The 
loathsome leper feels the warm, sympathetic touch 
of the All Pure ; the poor, fevered mother the glad 
welcome to new life in the hand stretched out to take 
her; the young man and the little girl, on opening 
their eyes again on the world, see in Him one whose 
delight it is to restore them to their friends. 

So, too, His words as well as His actions. The 
first teaching begins with eight Benedictions, and the 
last concludes with the prayer that the great love 
with which the Father loves the Son may be known 
and felt by His disciples. 

But He needed not to say anything. His Face 



160 The Ministry of "the Priest." 

said far more than His words ; nay, when the words 
were hard, men relied on what they knew Him to be. 
The Apostles felt the difficulty stated by the Jews, 
" How can this Man give us His flesh to eat ? " They 
saw the defection they caused; but if the thought of 
leaving Him ever occurred to them, the question at 
once arose, " To whom shall we go ? " And this same 
power of benediction which streamed forth from His 
face was felt by those who saw Him but for the first 
time. The Canaanitish mother, sorely distressed for 
her daughter, accepts teaching from Christ which, 
from anyone else, would have aroused her worst feel- 
ings. He might imply by His words that she was 
but one of the dogs of the Gentiles, with no right to 
the children's bread, but His face belied any cruel 
interpretation of His words. He was not insulting 
her — no one could see His countenance, beaming 
with love and tenderness, and say that — but rather 
trying to teach her her real position in the sight of 
God. It is possible that she may have had opportu- 
nities of entering the covenant of God and had re- 
jected them, and, therefore, felt with special force 
the rebuke ; but a rebuke from Him was more than 
a blessing from any one else, and so emboldened her 
to use her great argument, which so much rejoiced the 
heart of the Lord. 

It was this spirit of benediction, felt in every look 
and word, that attracted the poor and outcast, the 
weak and sinful. They felt He would understand 
them and deal gently with them, and so, though 



The Spirit of Benediction. 161 

awestruck at the Majesty and Purity of His Presence, 
they would creep in whilst He was dining or sur- 
rounded by some crowd, and find secretly the com- 
fort and strength which they knew to be in Him. 

Now, this is the spirit of the true Priest of God. 
Like his Master, he delights in Benediction. Of the 
fourteen letters of St. Paul but one is found without 
a blessing at its commencement; and even this, 
written to men who had been nearly guilty of apos- 
tasy, concludes with one. So, in the same spirit 
he is constantly expressing his thankfulness for the 
improvement which he sees in his converts, their 
faith, love, knowledge of the Lord. Even those whom 
he feels obliged to reprove he first blesses. And that 
has been the mind of all God's saints, especially his 
whose translation to Paradise has left the whole Church 
mourning. The last scene in the life of the great 
Archbishop of Canterbury which the Bishop of Albany 
remembers, and for the memory of which he thanks 
God, was that of his turning in Lambeth Chapel 
towards his three grandchildren and giving them the 
blessing of peace, and the last that the Archbishop of 
Armagh recollects is the Apostolic salutation he gave 
to the Irish Church in his person. These are the 
things that live in people's memories. How far do we 
know anything of them ? What a joy to take the infant 
into our arms and plunge him into the bath of regen- 
eration ! What a privilege that our lips should first 
officially pronounce that name which is written in the 
book of life ! And yet how often, in the hurry and 



162 The Ministry of "the Priest." 

rush of our life, are we disposed to look differently 
upon it ! To us, tired with a long service, the verger 
announces that country folk, living some distance 
from the Church, have brought a child to be baptized. 
How difficult then to feel the honor and blessing to 
which we are invited ! How tempting to wish it were 
over ! How poor the spirit we carry to it ! And 
they whose child we bless in the Lord's Name, who 
have looked forward to the day and planned to make 
it possible, who have invited friends and incurred 
some ill-afforded expense in preparations, catch 
something of our spirit of officialism, and return 
home wondering whether it was necessary to make so 
much fuss about a mere form. 

So, too, what a privilege to give the blessing of 
the Church to those who come to be married ! But 
when the arrangements are being made in the pri- 
vacy of our study, is there any effort on our part to 
persuade the betrothed to prepare by prayer for that 
touching threefold benediction which may mean so 
much to their lives? 

" O Eternal God . . . send Thy blessing upon 
these Thy servants, this man and this woman, whom 
we bless in Thy name. . . ." 

" God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy 
Ghost, bless, preserve, and keep you. . . ." 

" O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, 
bless these Thy servants. . . ." 

Do we try to lift the whole service out of its mere 
earthly surroundings and make all feel that, though 



The Spirit of Benediction. 163 

the outward details are only a form, yet they are a 
form for the solemnization of Matrimony; i. e., for 
making it a solemn, serious, holy estate, to be entered 
upon with reverence and in the fear of God? " The 
blessing of the Church " — how glibly the words pass 
over our lips ! and yet it is the blessing of the living 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

The same spirit of benediction is to accompany 
us to the sadder duties of our ministry. In the touch- 
ing office of Visitation of the Sick it is prescribed 
that the Priest shall say " Peace be to this house." 
It is this that the home then chiefly needs. Within 
there is anxiety, perhaps fuss and worry. The one 
thing necessary is quiet. And it is just this that the 
Priest is hoping to bring — the quiet of God. How 
careful then should he be so to make himself ready 
by prayer that he conveys this by his presence ! No 
preaching, no presumption that he knows why God 
has visited His children. " Dearly beloved, know 
this, that Almighty God is the Lord of life and death 
and of all things to them pertaining, as youth, 
strength, health, age, weakness, and sickness." 
Wherefore, whatsover your sickness is, know you 
certainly that it is God's visitation. Beyond this 
all is mystery whether the sickness is sent to try the 
patience for the example of others and that your 
faith may be found in the day of the Lord laudable, 
glorious, and honorable to the increase of glory and 
endless felicity, or whether it be sent for amend- 
ment of something that doth ' ' offend the eyes of your 



*-\ 



164 The Ministry of " the Priest." 

heavenly Father." The Priest goes not there as a 
judge, but as a friend, a helper, and a guide, lead- 
ing to repentance, for in any case that is the path, 
whether for saint or sinner, along which the Peace 
of God comes. 

There is no order in the service for Unction, but 
permission has been given by some Bishops with- 
in the Anglican Communion for the old rite with a 
view to recovery of health. It is difficult to see 
what objection can be urged against it if it be desired 
by the sick. We are inclined, however, to believe that 
the spirit of the Apostolic custom may be more use- 
fully preserved in another way. It would appear that 
the use of oil in healing was sanctioned by our Lord 
(St. Mark vi. 13) and the Church (St. James v. 14), 
because it was the common remedy of the times. 
We know from Pliny, Celsus, Josephus, and other 
writers, that it was universally resorted to for all 
kinds of medicinal purposes. As then the sick were 
often inclined to believe that the oil, apart from 
God's blessing, would heal, so the Christian Church 
prescribed that it should be used with prayer. Hence 
the custom of blessing the oil that was brought to the 
clergy by the people on Maundy Thursday, and after- 
wards taken back by them for use in case of need. If 
this be the case, it would suggest that we should be 
faithfully observing the spirit of St. James' direction 
if the use of all medicine were accompanied by the 
prayers of the Church. There can be no question 
that, owing to the wonderful progress in medical 



The Spirit of Benediction, 165 

science, there is a disposition to believe in the ef- 
ficacy of medicine apart from the Divine blessing; 
hence the common custom of sending for the Priest 
only after medical remedies have failed. If this be 
so, it would seem most desirable that people should 
be encouraged to seek for the Church's blessing on 
the medicine to be used for the recovery of the sick, 
a form for which should be provided and used. 
There is little doubt that such a use would be widely 
popular as encouraging the patient in the first stages 
of sickness, when hope does so much for health, and 
it would restore the priest to his proper position as 
bringing peace and quiet not when hope is lost, but 
when it is beginning to waver. Sometimes this bless- 
ing of the Church, i. e., of the Living Christ, is 
readily perceived and acknowledged. A child whose 
life had been despaired of and who had recovered 
was congratulated by one of the three doctors attend- 
ing her on the success of their remedies. " Oh, no," 
she said, quite simply, " it was not the medicines, 

but Mr. 's prayers," referring to the ministry of 

the priest who had been called in when life was sup- 
posed to have been lost. 

This benediction of medicines for healing leads us 
to think of the benediction of the fruits of the earth 
before we receive them ; the grace before meals, which 
is more than an act of thanksgiving, even a prayer that 
they may be for us all that God intended them to be. 

We now pass on to the last Benediction, that of the 
Dead. In the hour of gloom and darkness, when the 



1 66 The Ministry of " the Priest." 

consolations of the world seem hollow and vain, when 
flowers and pall seem only to hide the corruption 
which we know has already set in, when the spirit 
world seems so unreal and shadowy, and the earth 
the only substantial fact, then the Church boldly in- 
vokes a benediction on the departed. " Blessed are 
the dead which die in the Lord ; even so saith the 
Spirit, for they rest from their labors." She answers 
the half-pitying remarks of those who are strange to 
her faith, their "Poor so and so — gone at last," 
with the triumphant reply, " Nay, not ' Poor,' but 
1 Blessed ' " — Blessed because delivered out of the 
miseries of this sinful world, Blessed because he is 
at rest, Blessed because he is in joy and felicity. 

As we think of Benediction as the prevailing spirit 
of the Priest, we cannot help wishing that it were 
more continuously expressed. That Priest who is so 
downcast and gloomy as he walks to and fro from his 
Church is unconsciously denying his office, failing 
to recognize that God has sent him to the people 
amongst whom he ministers, as He sent His Son 
Jesus to bless mankind in turning away every one of 
them from their iniquities. 

(d) The Ministry of Binding. 

It is indeed sad that the Priest should exercise any 
other ministry than that of blessing ; but as the curses 
of God on Mount Ebal were set over against the bless- 
ings on Mount Gerizim, so the Ministry of Binding 
is set over against the Ministry of Benediction. 



The Ministry of Binding. 167 

It is possible, alas ! that the message of peace may- 
be rejected, the blessing ridiculed, the authority of 
God's embassy despised. It is possible that men 
may set God's order at defiance, resist His ministry, 
take His holy things into their own hands, as Jero- 
boam and Uzziah did. It is from such a possibility 
that there arises the dread office of binding or reten- 
tion of sins — an office better understood in the first 
days than now, an office brought into contempt by 
the light and frivolous use made of it in the middle 
ages. When popes and bishops pronounced anathe- 
mas against those who resisted their own selfish will 
rather than the will of God, when they cut off not 
individuals or parishes merely, not dioceses, but 
whole nations, from the means of grace because of a 
personal quarrel with the king, then the weapon, used 
with such tremendous force in early days, dropped 
powerless from their hands. Men laughed at the 
Church's excommunication. If that spirit is to some 
extent still abroad, it is well for us to remember that 
there was once a time, and it may come again, when 
the Apostolic delivery of the sinner to Satan for the 
destruction of the flesh produced even amongst the 
light-hearted Corinthians great fear, such anxiety, 
such endeavors to clear themselves free from blame, 
such indignation, such vehement desire, such fear, 
such zeal, such revenge, 1 that the Apostle, seeing the 
effect of the proposed discipline, at once relaxed it. 

Now, this severer side of the priestly life was not 
1 2 Cor. vii. 11. 



1 68 The Ministry of "the Pirest." 

developed in the days immediately succeeding the 
Resurrection ; it had its origin and source in the life 
and words of the great High Priest. 

He it was who passed sentence on the guilty nation 
in the symbolic action of blighting the fig-tree, " No 
man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And im- 
mediately the fig-tree withered away." So, too, at 
His word the national life drooped, and the Jewish 
Church, which was the mother of saints and prophets, 
poets and politicians, became barren and for nearly 
two thousand years has borne no fruit. (St. Matt, 
xxi. 19.) 

He it was who invoked woe after woe on the relig- 
ious and political guides of the nation, naming them 
as fools and blind, a generation of vipers, so bad 
that it seemed impossible that they could escape the 
judgment of hell. (St. Matt, xxiii. 13-34.) 

He it was who bade His Apostles excommunicate 
the offending brother who refused to accept the judg- 
ment of the Church and treat him as an heathen 
man and a publican, assuring them that the awful 
sentence should be ratified in heaven. (St. Matt, 
xviii. 17.) 

And He it was who gave to the Church, in the 
person of St. Peter, the keys of the Kingdom of 
Heaven, bidding her use them for shutting as well as 
opening. And when the prophetic eye of St. John 
saw his Master years after, he saw Him as having with 
Him the key of David, possessing authority to shut as 
well as to open. (St. Matt. xvi. 19; Rev. iii. 7.) 



A Present Power. 169 

So the Church, knowing herself to be endowed 
through her Head with this awful power, was led to 
exercise it. Ananias and Sapphira, bound by the 
word of St. Peter, give up the ghost, and Elymas, 
the sorcerer, bound by the word of St. Paul, loses 
his sight ; and Alexander, the coppersmith, together 
with the false Hymenseus, are delivered unto Satan 
that they may learn not to blaspheme. Nor has the 
Church, since Apostolic times, abrogated this power. 
Indeed, how could she, since it is not hers, but be- 
longs to her Head? Invested with the present power 
of judging the world, as with the future of " judging 
angels," she has always, when she has remained true 
to her divine commission, passed judgment on men 
and things. As she has " loosed" in the name of 
the Lord, so also she has "bound." And even in 
our own branch of the Catholic Church the power 
of discipline has been preserved, though the reaction 
from Papal authority has led her priests to be some- 
what timid in exercising it. It is ordered that if 
any members of the Church offend their brethren 
by any wickedness of life, that such shall be warned 
not to come to the Holy Communion ; and that those 
betwixt whom the Priest perceiveth malice and hatred 
to reign shall not be suffered to be partakers of the 
Lord's Table till they be reconciled. 

It is further ordered (Canon 13 of the American 
Church) that no minister, knowingly after due in- 
quiry, shall solemnize the marriage of any person 
who has a divorced husband or wife still living, if 



170 The Ministry of "the Priest." 

such husband or wife has been put away for any 
cause arising after marriage ; and that no one who 
has been improperly married shall be admitted to 
Holy Baptism, Confirmation, or Communion, with- 
out reference to the Bishop of the Diocese. 

It is further ordered that none shall be admitted 
to the Holy Communion until such time as he be 
confirmed or be ready and desirous to be coDflrmed ; 
and that the office for the Burial of the Dead be not 
used for any unbaptized adults, any who die excom- 
municate, or who have laid violent hands upon them- 
selves. 

From these directions it is plain that there is not 
only the power of the keys within the Church, but 
that the clergy are expected — nay, commanded — to 
exercise it. And the directions cover so large a 
field that it is difficult to suppose that a priest will 
be so fortunate as to escape from the irksome neces- 
sity which the command implies. 

It is, then, important to see how our Lord exer- 
cised it, and what directions He gave respecting its 
exercise. 

(1) We know that it caused Him great pain. 

Before sentencing the guilty city and nation to bar- 
renness and desolation He wept over it, loudly la- 
menting the fact of its ignorance which was lead- 
ing it to such a dreadful fate. 1 He did not feel the 
work of discipline to be the easy matter which some 
of those who have represented Him have supposed. 
1 St. Luke xix. 42. 



To be Exercised in Sorrow. 171 

If only the Church's rulers had been filled with 
His Spirit, had had their anathemas forced out of 
them, as it were, with grief and sorrow, these would 
have still had some of their old power ! So, if un- 
happily the occasion may arise with us, for the 
exercise of discipline, to warn the offender off the 
holy ground, to refuse the precious pearls of the 
Gospel to one who cannot appreciate them, let us 
take heed how we do it. Let us make it perfectly 
plain that there is no personal feeling mixed up with 
it, that we are really sorry, that we would do any- 
thing that was right to avoid it, and then with prayer 
leave the issue with God. Those whom the Lord 
sentenced crucified Him. And the like spirit has 
been shown again and again. But, though it may 
arouse hostility and anger, and often fail in obtain- 
ing an immediate result, it is not always the case. 
At a gathering of clergy who were discussing the 
subject of discipline, the following testimony was 
borne to its blessing. A wealthy man, the one per- 
son of influence and power in the parish, had been 
warned off from the Holy Communion on the 
ground of adultery. In spite of this warning he 
presented himself on Easter Day. The Priest passed 
him by. Enraged, the excommunicate stood up and 
struck him in the face. Humbly and quietly he went 
on with his ministrations. In three months the man 
had repented, put away his sin, and was reconciled 
to the Church. 

(2) Our Lord tells us that the offence, whether 



172 The Ministry of "the Priest."" 

contentious or vicious, is first to be told to the 
Church. "Tell it unto the Church, and (only) 
if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto 
thee as an heathen man and a publican." J 

It is the observance of this direction that prevents 
the personal element from being mixed up with it. 
The spirit of our Lord's command is expressed for 
us in the rubric that compels notice of every in- 
tended act of excommunication to be sent to the 
Bishop. We remember how careful St. Paul was to 
observe this rule. His sentence on the Corinthian 
offender runs in this way : "In the name of our Lord 
Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit 
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver 
such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the 
flesh." It may be that we are obliged to act quickly 
before the case could be submitted to the Bishop. 
In this case it would seem that the communicants 
might be summoned and their opinion taken after 
earnest prayer, for it is premised that the offence is 
publicly known and already causing scandal. 

All this is difficult we say; yes, nothing more diffi- 
cult to-day, when nothing is kept secret or hidden ; 
but we are stewards of the mysteries of God, and the 
chief thing expected and required of a steward is 
that he be faithful (1 Cor. iv. 2) — faithful to Him 
who entrusts him with His holy things, and faithful 
to those souls for whom he must give account in the 
Great Day. 

1 St. Matt, xviii. 17. 



The Ministry of Loosing. 173 

(c) The Ministry of Loosing. 

It is with relief that we turn from the ministry of 
binding to the ministry of loosing. It was this that 
specially delighted the heart of the Son of God. In 
His first public sermon He declared it to be the very 
purpose and object of His Mission; He was " sent 
to preach deliverance to the captives and recover- 
ing of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that 
are bruised. To proclaim the acceptable year of 
the Lord." And that there might be no possible 
mistake about the exercise of it, He takes advantage 
of a very public and crowded occasion not only to 
pronounce absolution, but to prove by a miracle His 
right to pronounce it. We all remember the scene, 
the house in Capernaum filled with a crowd which 
overflowed into the street, the palsied sinner being 
let down slowly from the roof to the feet of Jesus, 
the silent hush followed by the unexpected words, 
" Thy sins be forgiven thee," and then, when men 
are crying on all sides, " He blasphemes ! He blas- 
phemes ! " the challenge, "Whether is easier?" 
emphasized by the words, " That ye may know that 
the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, 
Arise and take up thy bed and go unto thy house." 

It was clear that He had the power ; but what is 
not so readily perceived is that He claims it for 
Himself as Son of Man, and specially emphasizes 
the earth as the sphere in which it is to be exercised. 
"The Son of Man hath power on earth." These 



174 The Ministry of "the Priest" 

were the points which raised such eager criticism. 
His hearers were accustomed to absolution, given by 
God and in heaven, but here was absolution given 
by humanity in the Person of the Son of Man and 
on the earth. Our Lord does not give it as " the 
Son " or as " the Son of God," but as " the Son of 
Man," i. e., as representing the whole race of man. 
The words naturally point to a continuance of this 
great blessing. Humanity having once exercised 
it, will continue to do so as long as it exists. The 
only question is how. So long as the Son of Man was 
on the earth absolution was confined to Him; but 
when He was about to pass away to the right hand 
of the Father He delegates it to the Church in the 
well-known words, " As My Father hath sent Me 
even so send I you." "Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost." "Whosesoever sins ye remit they are re- 
mitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain 
they are retained." And the Church has always 
exercised it through her Bishops and Priests. Imi- 
tating her Divine Master, she sends forth her Priests 
with the very same words as He sent her forth, only 
adding to the words " Receive ye the Holy Ghost " 
the words " for the office and work of a Priest in 
the Church of God now committed unto thee by the 
imposition of our hands." So the Priest thus com- 
missioned dares to take upon himself the Ministry 
of Reconciliation both in public and private. 

Having seen that the Ministry of Loosing is a part 
of the Priest's functions, we now consider how it is 



Its Freedom. 175 

exercised. And first we note the freedom with which 
Christ absolves. There is no examination of con- 
science, no demand for satisfaction. " Son, thy sins 
are forgiven," are the welcome words that fall on the 
penitent's ear. So, also, to the poor woman who crept 
into the house of Simon for the peace she so greatly 
longed after, He says simply and shortly, " Thy faith 
hath saved thee; go in peace," explaining to the 
Pharisee Simon that her sins were forgiven her be- 
cause " she loved much." So, again, to the woman 
taken in the very act of sin He says, " neither do I 
condemn thee; go and sin no more." So, too, in 
that crowning act of absolution, that of the robber 
on the Cross : the moment he asked, that moment he 
was absolved. "To-day shalt thou be with Me in 
Paradise." 

It is of course true that our Lord recognized their 
repentance as real and sincere. He knew they were 
sorry for what they had done, and wished to amend. 
But how readily He meets their need, how full and 
free is the absolution He pronounces ! It is not con- 
ditioned in any way ; nothing is asked for, nothing 
is stipulated. The gift is theirs at once, and in its 
strength they are to meet the new temptations. 

There is just the same teaching in our Lord's 
Parable of the Prodigal Son. Even while the son is 
yet a great way off, before he has said a word about 
his sorrow, the father's arms are round his neck, the 
father's kiss upon his cheek, and directly the confes- 
sion is made, " Father, I have sinned against heaven 



176 The Ministry of "the Priest." 

and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called 
thy son," the direction is given to the servant to 
bring forth the best robe and put it on him, to place 
the ring on his hand, the shoes on his feet ; in other 
words, to restore him at once to his old position and 
his old honors. 

We note, secondly, that our Lord gives it every- 
where and anywhere, wherever it is needed — at the 
dinner table, in the crowded house, and in the Tem- 
ple. It was His great joy to dispense it freely wher- 
ever and whenever asked or sought for. 

We note, thirdly, that He gave it to individuals, 
showing plainly ±at He knew how much they needed 
it. 

Now, in applying these three considerations we 
will take the last first. There are many who suppose 
that there are none who need this private, personal 
absolution. They say, " All ought to be content with 
God's forgiveness given at their own bedside or the 
public absolution given in the Church ; this private 
dispensing of God's pardon is weakening to souls 
and ought to be discouraged." But in answer we 
may say that our Lord would have never sanctioned 
it by His own actions if it had been universally weak- 
ening, and that, so far as the need is concerned, by 
His remarks to Simon the Pharisee He seems to chide 
him for feeling it so slightly. We cannot say that 
all ought to have the desire for it. Everyone knows 
that many of the best of God's children have done 
without it ; but such an admission does not deny, what 



Necessity for this Ministry. if? 

is doubtless also a fact, that there are many men and 
women burdened with sins who, to use the words of 
Frederick Robertson, at least an unprejudiced writer, 
are crying, " I want guidance; I am sinful, full of 
evil ! I want forgiveness ! Absolve; tell me that I 
am pardoned; help me to believe it ! " "a cry," he 
went on to say, "daily more passionate and more com- 
mon. ' ' Perhaps we priests have never used the power 
of the keys, perhaps we are afraid of this great treas- 
ure because of " the earthen vessel " in which it is 
contained, and perhaps we are pressed by an unwor- 
thy prejudice that the doctrine is Roman; but what- 
ever may be our feelings, let us take good heed that 
in our apparent humility we are not joining the Phari- 
sees in their cry that " God alone can forgive sins," 
and denying to the Son of Man power on earth to for- 
give sins ; let us be earnestly on the watch lest a deep- 
rooted distrust of a Roman method of ministering 
absolution should lead us to deny altogether the Gos- 
pel truth of the ministry of reconciliation ; or a fear 
of what our people may say persuade us to be so re- 
served in our teaching that no soul can ever know 
where he may receive the benefit of absolution together 
with ghostly counsel and advice. Whilst we are bound 
to proclaim in the name of our holy Church the lib- 
erty wherewith Christ has set us free, we are also 
bound to proclaim it in both directions — liberty 
to live without any further pledge than the blessed 
and full assurance of God's favor given us in the 
Holy Eucharist, but liberty also to seek for and 



178 The Ministry of "the Priest" 

obtain that personal conviction of God's loosing 
power which the hand and mouth of the Church seal 
to the penitent. The little boy who grew up to be a 
martyr bishop, John Coleridge Patteson, used to say 
that he wished to be a clergyman that he might say 
the absolution, for it would make people so happy. 
Those who have used the power of the keys com- 
mitted to them know what a blessed experience 
this is. 

We noted, in the second place, that our Lord ab- 
solved everywhere where the blessing was sought for. 
So the Priest needs neither Church nor Vestry nor 
any private place for the ministry of absolution. 
We have ourselves been told by one how he minis- 
tered it to a working-man on the road-side. Nor 
does it need any particular posture, any outward ac- 
cessories. Wherever there is penitence and wherever 
there is the Church, there the loosing from the bands 
of sins may take place. We are not suggesting that 
any other place is so suitable as the Church, but only 
that time and place are not essential. 

So, too, with regard to the form of absolution. 
That has and does and always will differ. The grace 
is not tied to the form any more than repentance to 
the particular w r ords in which it is expressed. It is 
needless to say that there can be no obligation for 
the confession of every detail of sin. The repent- 
ance may be expressed quite shortly in the words of 
the Prodigal Son, or, indeed, without any words at all 
— in tears of contrition. The Priest needs not to know 



Diversities of Method. 179 

what has been done if he can be assured, without that 
knowledge, of the reality of the repentance. So Jer- 
emy Taylor, in his " Dissuasive from Popery" (book 
I, part ii, section xi, 2), argues at length against the 
Roman doctrine that it is necessary to confess in 
detail all our sins or even what are called mortal 
sins. " That of this there was no necessity, believed 
in the primitive Church, appears in this : because 
they did not expect pardon from the Bishop or Priest 
in the greatest crimes, but were referred wholly to 
God for the pardon of them." So, again, to the same 
effect he shows from many testimonies, gathered from 
mediaeval as well as primitive days, that the tears of 
penitence sufficed in the place of the open confes- 
sion of some great sin. Not that they would always. 
It may be that, as our Lord teaches, satisfaction 
ought to be made to the one offended against ; the 
priest needs therefore to feel assured that he is not 
about to offer the ministry of reconciliation to one 
who cannot receive it. Again, the unspeakable 
comfort of direction cannot be given without some 
knowledge of the besetting sin and its manifold 
ramifications, and probably no penitent would be 
content without it. There are, then, reasons which 
show the usefulness of such penitential methods as 
are recommended by holy men of great spiritual 
experience. But in practice we must take good 
heed that their spiritual purpose is never lost sight 
of, which is to deepen the knowledge of sin and to 
establish and quicken faith in the Absolving Power 



i8o The Ministry of "the Priest." 

of the Living Christ. Once assured that the repent- 
ance is real, the absolution ought to be immediate, 
full and free. 

This blessed ministry of loosing has been much 
abused because confounded with the Roman form of 
it, which is compulsory instead of free, and clogged 
with many conditions which make it seem hard, 
formal, and repulsive. We need to restore its lib- 
erty, to teach its efficacy in all the forms used, 
whether at Matins, Evensong, the Eucharist, or the 
Visitation of the Sick, to show that it has nothing 
necessarily to do with direction or guidance, nor 
with secrecy (except on the part of the Priest) or 
privacy ; that it is not hedged about with any other 
condition than that of penitence, and that it is free 
to all to receive it in that way which they know to be 
most helpful to their own souls. 



DEVOTIONS. 

I bless and praise Thee, O Lord Jesus, for Thy great 
mercy in not only dying for our reconciliation, but com- 
mitting the power thereof to Thy Church. Strengthen 
that which Thou hast wrought in us, loosing in Heaven 
what in Thy Name we have loosed on earth, and perfect- 
ing more and more in the fear and love of Thee the 
sanctification of all those whom the Good Shepherd has 
sought in His wanderings and laid on His shoulders 
and brought back rejoicing. 

Grant, O Lord, to Thy faithful people pardon and 
peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins and 
serve Thee with a quiet mind. 

O Lord, give me the wisdom that cometh from above, 
that I may judge Thy people according to right. Make 
me so to use the power of the keys that I may open to 
none to whom I ought to shut, nor shut to any to whom 
I ought to open. Give me a pure intention, sincere 
zeal, patient charity, and such diligence as shall not be 
in vain. Make me gentle and at the same time faith- 
ful, that I may neither despise the poor nor pay court to 
the rich. Help me in all my words and actions to ex- 
press Thy love and justice, and so at last, with those 
committed to me, to attain everlasting life, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. 



VIII. 
THE EAGLE OR THE MINISTRY OF " THE SEER." 



MEDITATION. 
The Power of the Inner Life. 

The life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith 
which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for 
me. — Gal. it. 20. 

" The life which 1 now live in the flesh " — What a 
(!) life it was ! a life of suffering, continuous 

The Priest's travel, hardship, danger, weariness, and 
Llfe * painfulness, watching, fasting, and anxiety, 

burdened also with the care of all the Churches ! And 
yet, in spite of all that weighed upon him, St. Paul, per- 
haps more than any one, except St. John, possessed that 
" peace which passeth all understanding." How few 
are my troubles compared with his, how slight my 
burdens, how light my affliction ! Why, then, am I so 
often worried, as though '* some strange thing had hap- 
pened to me " ? Remember St. Peter's words : " Even 
hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered 
you, leaving you an example that ye should follow His 
steps." That I should bear the Cross is not strange, but 
only that I should bear it so badly. 

" / live by the faith which is in the Son of God" — 

( 2 ) Here is St. Paul's secret. He was quiet, 

The Priest's calm, and strong in spite of outward perils, 

Strength. because he was ever drawing life from the 
Son of God. " I can do all things through Christ, which 
strengtheneth me." Through prayer and continuous 



Meditation. 185 

fellowship, through the communion of the Body and 
Blood of Christ, he was ever drawing that divine life 
which welled forth from Christ as from a fountain. My 
worry and disquiet are due to the weakness of my faith, 
my scanty prayers, my poor communions, my infrequent 
meditations. I can be strong if I will, for the same 
source is open to me as to St. Paul. 

" Who loved me, and gave Himself for me " — St. Paul's 

( 3 -) great faith was based on our Lord's per- 

The Priest's sonal, individual, and peculiar love to him- 

Assurance. sdf - Re kngw that Re loyed aU men> bm 

he also knew that He loved that self of which he was so 
often ashamed. It was this that made him seek Christ 
at all times, as the wife born in low estate ever seeks the 
counsel and strength of the prince who has honored her 
with his affection. I, too, must feel this if my devotion is 
to be strong and persevering. There is something in 
me, some likeness to Christ, which draws out His divine 
compassion, as the child awakens a chord in the moth- 
er's heart ; and that this might be perfected He died. 

I will strive to make all my prayers, devotions, and 
„ , . meditations the expression of a personal 

Resolution. . . _. . _ ,. 

devotion to the living Christ ; often meditat- 
ing upon His death, the proof not only of His love for 
the world, but of His love for me. 



VIII. 

THE EAGLE OR THE MINISTRY OF " THE SEER." 

As we look upon the Life, the outline of which 
we have tried to present, we feel in despair. It 
seems so far beyond our powers — an Ideal, indeed, 
of virtue, courage, and wisdom, which we may ad- 
mire, but cannot hope to reach. It were no small 
thing to be a Prophet, waiting in patience for the 
Divine Word, and then speaking it plainly and 
boldly ; no light responsibility to live the Royal Life 
with its demands upon our judgment, tact, and sym- 
pathy, and no easy task to bear the burden of the 
Priest who daily sacrifices himself for his people : 
but to be, as most of us must be, Prophet, Priest, and 
King in one ! Who is sufficient for these things, we 
ask ? 

And the sense of unfitness is only deepened by 
the consideration of what our ministerial life seems 
to be — so earthly and unspiritual. We have felt the 
prophet's temptations to be vain and conceited, and 
those of the king to be autocratic, and those that 
beset the Priest to be hard and proud. We have rec- 
ognized at times with a shudder a certain coarseness 
vulgarizing all our spiritual conceptions and bringing 



The Eagle Life, 187 

us down to the level of a hireling whose only thought 
is his wages. What is our hope, then ? Surely to 
rise above the earthly into the heavenly sphere ; to 
retain our ideals at all costs, or if we cannot realize 
the Ideal, at least " to idealize the Real." It is not 
sufficient that we have the understanding of a man, 
the royal dignity, strength, and quick activity of the 
lion, and the patient submission of the ox ; we must 
have the power to soar above the earth as the eagle. 
The Chariot that bears the Presence of God is sup- 
ported by four living creatures, and these four have 
the face of an eagle. The eagle life, then, must be 
ours. And where is that lived ? The heaven is her 
sphere of being, the mountain top her home, the 
clouds her refuge. Now and again she swoops down 
to earth for her prey ; but she stays not there, for she 
cannot live her life there. So, too, the Priest. He 
must ascend in heart and mind to that Heaven where 
his Master dwells and with Him continually dwell. 
As Dante was sustained in his awful pilgrimage 
through hell and purgatory by having his mind fixed 
on the heavenly beauty of Beatrice, so, too, the 
Priest-King finds his sustenance in the vision of 
the ascended Christ. " Apart from Me ye can do 
nothing." 

This principle, then, that we now examine, though 
fourth in our arrangement, is really first in impor- 
tance. Everything depends upon the Priest's inner 
life. " Take heed to thyself," St. Paul writes to his 
friend Timothy, and only when he has said that, adds 



i88 The Ministry of "the Seer" 

the words " and the doctrine." The late Bishop of 
Winchester, Anthony Thorold, was asked by a newly 
consecrated Bishop what, in his experience, was the 
one thing to be kept in mind ? " All depends," he 
answered, " upon the personal life and character of 
the Bishop. That is the foundation upon which 
will rest all which you will be able to do." That 
we all feel to be true. " No man's work is or can 
be a failure unless he himself is a failure." The 
world may think it to be so, and so may we, but, pro- 
vided we are earnest and spiritually-minded, the 
results of our work will appear, even though it be 
after many days. But where can we find our Model 
for the expression of this all-important principle ? 
It has not been difficult to take our Lord as the Ex- 
ample of the Prophet, Priest, and King, for their 
characteristic features were outward and plainly ex- 
pressed in the Gospels ; but His Inner life — who may 
know that, or who that knows it can venture to depict 
it ? We may well ask, and the task will not be at- 
tempted here. We may, however, venture to point 
out three principles of our Lord's Inner Life which 
at least suggest the spiritual basis of the Minis- 
terial Life. They are these : 
(i) The Love of the Father. 

(2) The Love of the Holy Ghost. 

(3) The Love of Souls. 

No attentive reader of the Gospels can fail to see 
how, behind all our Lord's actions, lay these great 
guiding motives, the first suggesting the Atmosphere 



The Atmosphere of the Eagle Life. 189 

in which the Ministerial Life is lived, the second the 
Power by which it is sustained, and the third the 
Motive by which all its labors are directed. 

(z) Personal Faith in Christ or the Atmosphere of the 
Eagle Life. 

This with our Lord was the Love of the Father. 
One with the Father eternally, the love of the Father 
was that by which He lived. " As I live because of the 
Father," He said, " even so he that eateth Me shall 
live because of Me." " I speak that which I have 
seen with My Father." " The Son can do nothing 
of Himself but what He seeth the Father doing." 
And so in many passages. Of Himself He originated 
nothing. He spoke what He had heard, did what He 
had seen, judged according to His Father's mind. 
The one standard for men was to be perfect as His 
Father was perfect; the one end which He set before 
Himself was to glorify His Father. If the whole 
world left Him He would not be alone, for the Father 
was with Him. If only His disciples could realize 
the Father's love and greatness, they would rejoice 
instead of sorrowing at His departure, for His Father 
was greater — not greater in Majesty or Dignity, for 
the Father's desire was that all men should honor the 
Son as they honored Himself, but greater inasmuch 
as He was Father and Christ was Son. This, then, 
was the atmosphere in which our Lord spoke, acted, 
judged, and lived — the love of a Person. 



190 The Ministry of "the Seer" 

So writes Dr. Liddon : " Every mystery of His Life, 
from His Birth in the manger to His Ascension into 
Heaven, was an act of Homage to the glory of the 
Father. Our Lord, we may say without risk of ex- 
aggeration, never conceived a thought, nor formed a 
desire, nor uttered a word, unless in some way word 
and desire and thought might set forth His Father's 
glory." 

As we contemplate this continuous, unceasing, all- 
absorbing devotion of our Lord to the Father, we 
ask whether that is to be our atmosphere. The answer 
is both yes and no. In one sense " no, ' ' for our Lord 
always places Himself as the sustaining element in 
our life, "/am the Bread of Life." "He that 
eateth me, He shall live by Me." "lam the Door." 
"lam the Way. No man cometh unto the Father 
but by Me." " I am the True Vine." " Abide in 
Me and I in you." "Whosoever loveth father or 
mother more than Me is not worthy of Me." And 
when St. Philip, seeming not to be entirely satisfied 
with Him as the supreme object of his life, cries, 
" Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us," our 
Lord is pained, and asks, " Have I been so long time 
with you and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? 
He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." But 
in another sense "yes," for he that hath the Son 
hath the Father also, he that knoweth the Son know- 
eth the Father also. Still as there is a divine order 
in our knowledge of the Father, pointing the Son to 
us as the Way, it is quite evident that the love of 



The Love of the Son. 191 

the Son is the spiritual atmosphere in which the Inner 
Life is to be lived. But this love brings us to the 
Father. Our Lord must be to us what the Father 
was to Him. Any attempt to substitute the love of 
the Father for the love of the Son would be to dis- 
honor the Father as well as the Son. Knowing the 
Son we know the Father ; living by the Son we live 
by the Father who sent Him ; beholding the Son we 
behold the Father, Whose Image He is. 

Our Lord, then, is to be the supreme object of our 
devotion. When He is this, then we have a proof 
that we have both heard the Father and learned of 
Him, 1 for it is the Father's will that all should honor 
the Son, even as they honor the Father, for he that 
honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which 
hath sent Him. 2 In the reaction that has natural- 
ly followed Calvinism the glory of the Father has 
emerged again from the obscurity into which harsh 
doctrines had driven it ; and who can be thankful 
enough for this ? But there is now a danger lest the 
glory of the Son should be obscured through the con- 
centration of devotion upon the Father. From any 
suspicion of this His Priests at least must be free. 

Let us ask ourselves, then, seriously, " What is 
the Person of Jesus Christ to me ? " I may admire 
His character, feel deeply indebted to Him for His 
redemption, reverence Him with devotion as my 
God, and yet be very far from the standard set before 
me in the Gospels. For He is there not as a great 
1 St. John vi. 45, 46. 2 St. John v. 23. 



192 The Ministry of "the Seer" 

Hero of History, nor simply as a world Redeemer 
and Saviour, but as one who stands to me in all those 
relationships so beautifully expressed in St. Bernard's 
hymn : 

" Jesus, my Shepherd, Husband, Friend, 
My Prophet, Priest, and King, 
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, 
Accept the praise I bring." 

" Married to another, even to Him who is raised 
from the dead," x cries St. Paul. " I am the Good 
Shepherd and know my sheep and am known of 
mine," saith the Lord. " Ye are My friends . . . 
I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not 
what his lord doeth, but I have called you friends, 
for all things that I have heard of My Father I have 
made known unto you," 2 saith the same Lord. 

These relations are indeed most intimate, and they 
suggest not only a consideration of what He is to us, 
but of what we ought to be to Him. On His side 
there is the compassionate care of the Good Shep- 
herd, the sympathetic interest of a true Friend, and 
the love of a Husband, and what is there on ours to 
correspond with these great realities ? Perhaps we 
all know something of the pain experienced when 
those whom we love are cold and indifferent and 
make no return beyond a passing interest in some 
public work in which we are engaged. Does He 
feel this? Does He see that whilst we are interested 
in the growth of His Kingdom we find no time to be 
1 Rom. vii. 4. 2 St. John xv. 14, 15. 



Love Through Knowledge. 193 

interested in Him, that whilst we are making real 
sacrifices to be familiar with the language or interpre- 
tation of His Word we are taking no pains to know 
Him ? Alas ! we all know how possible this is. But 
why do we know Christ so slightly ? Every one would 
admit that the knowledge of Christ is the most stim- 
ulating, stirring, and uplifting knowledge, but it is at 
the same time the most difficult — difficult because it 
requires infinite patience and steadfast determination 
of will. It has been well pointed out that the real 
knowledge of any person is hard enough to attain, and 
that the difficulty increases in proportion to the depth 
and greatness of his character. " We may easily 
idolize, or underestimate, a man, but to know him as 
he is — his true motives, the secret springs of his con- 
duct, the measure of his abilities, the explanation of 
his inconsistencies, the nature of his esoteric feel- 
ings, the dominant principle of his inner life — this 
is often a work of years, and one in which our own 
character and conduct play quite as important a part 
as our understanding ; for not only must the neces- 
sary insight be the result of our own acquired capaci- 
ties — which will have to be great in proportion to 
the greatness of the personality with which we have 
to deal — but there must further exist the kind and 
degree of affinity between us which can alone make 
self-revelation on his part possible. Plato, for in- 
stance, the spiritual philosopher, saw more profoundly 
into Socrates than could Xenophon, his companion in 
arms. Shakespeare and de Balzac, in their different 
13 



194 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

spheres, were unrivalled students of humanity : yet 
the latter could not see in it pure womanhood; 
the former has never painted a saint ; so essentially 
is even the intuition of genius qualified by charac- 
ter." ■ We frankly recognize all this as true in our 
relations with men ; we know that time, insight, and 
moral affinity are necessary elements in that knowl- 
edge which leads to human friendship. How, then, 
can we expect to know Christ without them ? Nay, 
inasmuch as holiness is the dominant feature in His 
Character, must we not add another element? " To 
know a Person who is perfectly holy we must focus 
our entire moral character upon Him ' ' ; and such 
an effort of the will naturally leads to repentance. 
" Penitence of heart or contrition would seem a 
necessary element in the purification of those who 
would know God," and therefore of those who would 
know Christ, and without it " we must part, or remain 
on a lower level of intercourse ; we cannot grow in 
intimacy and the insight which intimacy brings." 

We now see why it is that, in spite of the tremen- 
dous claims that our Lord, by His creation of us 
in His own Image, His Incarnation and Death, has 
upon our devotion, so many are servants rather than 
friends. To know Christ takes time, will, purifica- 
tion, prayer, and penitence, and the life we live is 
too fast to encourage such things. We are told that 
" we must specialize our study with that view " ; but 
who has time to specialize ? So we feel. Let us 
1 Ulingworth's Bampton Lectures, p. 117. 



Knowledge of St. Paul. 195 

look to the life of a very busy man of God, who 
learned to know Christ well, and see how he did. No 
human being has ever probably done as much for the 
world in thirty years as St. Paul did. To have cov- 
ered Asia Minor with churches would have been a 
great achievement, but when we add to that his work 
in Europe and his fourteen letters showing so plainly 
what his care of all the Churches involved, we wonder 
where he found the time. And yet this busy and 
hard-working man regarded everything as of small 
importance compared with the personal knowledge of 
Christ. " I count all things but loss for the excel- 
lency of the knowledge of Christ . . . and do 
count them but dung that I may . . . know 
Christ." x Christ was his life, and in proportion as 
he knew Him he found it. To live without Him 
was like living without air; it meant death. Hence 
this was the first necessity not simply of his work, 
but of his spiritual existence. And how did he learn 
to know Him ? Not chiefly by books, of which he 
had probably very few ; not chiefly by friends. No, 
it was rather by specializing all his studies, all his 
work, with that end in view. Through Nature, through 
men and women, through the Old Testament, through 
Prayer, through the Life-giving Food, Christ was ever 
revealing Himself. He saw His hand in every move- 
ment of his life, His will in every circumstance, 
His face in every beautiful object. And so at last, 
after many years, when quite an old man, he could 
1 Phil. iii. 8. 



196 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

say with full sincerity, " I know whom I have be- 
lieved," 1 and could look forward to a yet fuller 
knowledge. " I shall know fully, even as also I 
have known." 2 Our knowledge will come in the 
same way. As we have learnt to know literature, 
language, science by a succession of sacrifices ; as 
we have learnt to know our friend or, it may be, 
our wife by giving up this or that, so we learn to 
know Christ. The giving up of time in prayer, the 
yielding our will in some sacrifice, the humiliation 
of our pride in some act of penitence, the surrender 
of our best in answer to some call, the spending 
our money in some devotion to the poor, and of our 
life in Eucharistic worship — all these lead to unveil- 
ings, and each unveiling to fresh knowledge, till at 
last we find all our life, whether as Prophet, Priest, 01 
King, irradiated by the glory which streams from the 
Sun of Righteousness now rising above our horizon. 

(2) The Unction of the Holy Ghost or the Power by 
which the Eagle Life is Sustained. 

We pass from the consideration of the atmosphere 
in which the eagle life is lived to that of the power 
which sustains it. Now, as we think of His Life in 
this respect, we are beset by difficulties, especially if 
we attempt any analysis of that which lies within 
" the awful sanctuary of the Inner Life of His 
Human Soul." But this is not necessary. We 
1 2 Tim. i. 12. 2 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 



The Power for the Eagle Life. igy 

shall speak without explanation of certain phenom- 
ena noted in the Gospel accounts of His Life which 
suggest a certain intimate relation between the Holy- 
Ghost and the Inner Life of our Lord. 

At the beginning of His Ministry we are told that 
" the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a 
dove upon Him " ; * and, further, that the same Holy 
Ghost immediately afterwards " driveth Him into the 
wilderness"; 2 and yet, again, that He " returned 
in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." 3 So, in 
accord with the teaching of these passages, we find 
our Lord, in His first public sermon, not only choos- 
ing a text which speaks of the Unction of the Holy 
Ghost, but one which also indicates its object. " The 
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He hath 
anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; He 
hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight 
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 4 It was 
in the Spirit "given without measure" that He 
spoke the words of God. 5 But, further, not only His 
teaching, but His miracles also, if we are to accept 
the interpretation which the context with its teaching 
on " Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost " naturally 
gives to the phrase " the Finger of God." 6 But yet, 
again, not only His miracles, but the Great Sacrifice, 

1 St. Luke iii. 22. 2 St. Mark i. 12. 

3 St. Luke iv. 14. 4 St. Luke iv. 18. 

s St. John iii. 34. 6 St. Luke xi. 20, 



198 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

for it was " by means of the Eternal Spirit that He 
offered Himself without spot to God." 1 So, too, 
the Spirit raised up the Jesus that died and was 
buried, 2 and " by the Holy Spirit" He gave com- 
mandment to the Apostles during the great Forty 
Days. 3 And when, in the Revelation, the glorified 
Jesus as the slain One risen again and ascended, 
speaks to the Seven Churches, the voices of the Sav- 
iour and of the Spirit are as one. 4 Knowing so 
little of the eternal relations of the Blessed Persons 
of the Holy Trinity, we cannot explain the meaning 
of these wonderful passages, but they are sufficient 
to justify the thought that in some way the Eternal 
Son of God did the will of His Father in the power 
of the Holy Ghost. 

And if this be true of Him who was coequal with 
the Father and the Holy Ghost, what shall we say of 
His creatures ? What but this ? That they cannot 
remain for a second in the heavenly atmosphere of 
the life of Christ without the supporting power of 
the Holy Ghost. So our Lord teaches, bidding the 
disciples look to the Holy Ghost for the supply of 
every need. It is the Holy Ghost Who would enable 
them to receive the life-giving draughts of the cool, 
fresh, invigorating strength of God, for He would 
take the things of Jesus Christ and show them unto 
them. s 

1 Heb. ix. 14. 2 Rom. viii. 11. 

3 Acts i. 2. 4 Rev. ii. 1-7. 

5 St. John xvi. 15. 



Means for its Attainment. 199 

It is the Holy Ghost Who would lift them out of 
earth's false mists into the clear blue of God's Truth, 
for He is the Spirit of Truth and would guide them 
into all Truth, bringing all things to their remem- 
brance which the Truth had spoken. 1 

It is the Holy Ghost Who would guide them out of 
the darkness of unbelief into the clear bright light 
of the Sun of Righteousness, for His work was to 
glorify Christ. 2 

It is the Holy Ghost Who, when the eagle's wings 
flag and droop in prayer, would give them a strange 
vitality and quickness, at once enabling them to reach 
the Presence of God. 3 And these promises are for us. 
Here lies what Liddon has called " the Secret of 
Clerical Power." We ask now how we may realize 
them, how we may make this secret our own ? 

(1) Pray for it. "They continued with one ac- 
cord in prayer and supplication." When St. John 
in the spirit saw the Lamb upon the Throne, he also 
saw before it seven lamps of fire burning, "which 
are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the 
earth." As a devout writer says, "It is only by 
waiting before that throne of grace that we be- 
come imbued with the holy fire ; but he who waits 
there long and believingly, will imbibe that fire and 
come forth from his communion with God-bearing 
tokens of where he has been. For the individual 
believer and, above all, for every laborer in the Lord's 
vineyard, the only way to gain spiritual power is by 

1 St. John xvi. 13. 2 St. John xvi. 14. 3 Rom. viii. 26. 



2oo The Ministry of " the Seer." 

secret waiting at the Throne of God for the baptism 
of the Holy Spirit. . . . We said before that 
this fire cannot be simulated ; nothing else will pro- 
duce its effects. No more can the means of obtain- 
ing it be feigned. Nothing but the Lord's own ap- 
pointed, means nothing but ' waiting at the Throne ' ; 
nothing but keeping the heart under ' the eyes of 
the Lamb,' to be again and again penetrated by His 
spirit, can put the soul into that condition in which 
it is a meet instrument to impart the light and power 
of God to other men. " x 

(2) Believe in it. We repeat again and again the 
words " I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Giver of 
Life," but repetition is not faith. Faith in the 
Holy Ghost means making ventures in the confi- 
dence that " He will give you a mouth and wis- 
dom which all of your adversaries shall not be able 
to gainsay nor resist " ; 2 ventures in preaching in the 
open air without manuscript or note; ventures in 
praying by the beds of the sick or by the side of our 
friends in the simple, unstudied language of our 
hearts ; ventures in rebuking the open sinner or the 
profane crowd that stands jeering at those on their 
way to worship ; ventures in helping, as St. Philip 
did, the wealthy and influential out of darkness into 
light. 

(3) Avoid everything that is not only impure, but 
coarse and low. The spirit of purity shuns the im- 
pure. The vulgar jest, the remark that men speak 

1 Arthur, " Tongue of Fire," p. 311. 2 St. Luke xxi. 15. 



Means for its Attainment. 201 

of as being "bad form," the doubtful innuendo — 
these things so slight and unimportant in them- 
selves — spoil that disposition which is the ready 
instrument of the Holy Ghost. Never perhaps till 
this century were vulgar and low methods used for 
the proclamation of the Gospel, and no partial suc- 
cess can ever atone for the want of that "godly fear " 
which is always a mark of the " wisdom that cometh 
down from above." The most brutal and godless 
were touched by a Wesley or Whitfield, who, in all 
their passionate zeal for God's service, never yielded 
to the temptation to gain a cheap applause by a flash 
of worldly wit or a coarse jest. 

(4) Be patient. We have to learn, as Elijah 
learned, that the way of the Spirit is not the way 
of compulsion. It is not by the miraculous fire 
from heaven, not by the slaughter of four hundred 
and fifty priests of Baal, not by the great excitement 
of the momentary conversion of a whole people, not 
by such compelling force as would persuade men to 
cry out in the fever of a hot and crowded meeting, 
" the Lord He is God, the Lord He is God," but 
by the " still small voice " the Holy Spirit loves to 
work. It may be our lot to experience a similar 
disappointment to that of Elijah, and to have as our 
work not the conversion of a parish, but only the 
preparation of one who will do it after we are gone. 
" Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt 
thou anoint to be prophet in thy room." 



202 The Ministry of "the Seer." 

(j) The Love of Souls or the Motive by which the 
Eagle Life is Directed. 

We have spoken of the atmosphere in which the 
eagle's life is lived, of its power of movement, and 
now we speak of its motive. And looking at once 
to the Great Example, it is not difficult to deter- 
mine where He found it. His own words to His 
disciples — " I have meat to eat that ye know not of." 
" My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me 
and to finish His work" 1 — sufficiently explain it. 
The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which 
was lost. And as we have already seen, it was not 
merely crowds, peoples, nations, a world, that He 
felt such a care for, but individuals — single, solitary 
souls like the poor woman who crept into the crowd 
to get her blessing and depart secretly, the out- 
cast Zacchseus, the penitent Mary Magdalene, giving 
them time which a kingdom would now think itself 
fortunate in possessing. 

What was the secret of this love of souls ? There 
must be something in each soul that excites this 
wonderful compassion and strong, deep love — a love 
so great that Dr. Pusey tells us that it has been sup- 
posed that He would be crucified again if so He 
could save one single soul the more. 

There were, we may say, three elements in that 
strong love of the Son of God, which nothing wears 
out, First, the Benevolent Compassion of the Powerful 
1 St. John iv. 32-34, 



The Motive of the Eagle Life. 203 

for the weak, of the good for the wretched, that which 
was shadowed forth in the daring deed of the man 
who plunged last winter into the ice of the Hudson 
to save the poor suicide. We are His creatures, and, 
as such, are the objects of His mercy. "Asa father 
pitieth his own children, so the Lord pitieth them 
that fear Him." 1 

Secondly, there was human sympathy with our need. 
" In all points tempted like as we are." He knows 
our difficulties and trials, our sorrows and afflictions, 
and from having felt them is anxious to relieve them. 
When the brave Welsh miners some years ago saw 
from the shore a ship in sore distress and imminent 
peril, with men clinging to the rigging, their own 
knowledge of danger at once stimulated them to a 
rescue which others were not willing to attempt, and 
when asked what reward they desired, they answered 
briefly, "We have the lives of the men." So He 
who inspired this and every courageous action sought 
us out because He saw our misery. " In all our 
affliction He was afflicted," and our very necessities 
drove Him to the Cross, whilst our salvation is His 
supreme satisfaction. 

In the third place, there is a close connecting link 
or tie between each man and Christ. He is "the 
Head of every man," and in Him every man finds 
the perfect image of Himself. That strange variety 
of characters, separated by race, color, nationality, by 
tribe, clan, and family, perpetuated in so marvellous 
1 Ps. ciii. 13. 



204 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

a manner that no type is, so far as we know, repeated — 
no man has his own perfect double — this is found in 
Christ. " Ye are all one in Christ Jesus," J writes 
the Apostle. And this because each man finds him- 
self in Christ, and, therefore, in Him finds a perfect 
relationship to every one else. That love which 
drove the sculptor to give his life for his statue is a 
shadow of that greatest Love which constrained Christ 
to give His life for those who were images of Him- 
self. Between Him and each soul, then, there is a 
secret tie of intimacy, closer than that which exists 
between parent and child. If the soul recognizes this 
and "overcomes" every hindrance to its realization, 
then one day, in the " new name which no one know- 
eth but he that receiveth it," 2 will be revealed the 
great secret of the attachment of Christ to the indi- 
vidual, shadows of which are seen in the love of 
poets for their poems, of artists for their paintings, 
and, still more, of parents for their children. " Then 
we shall know even as w r e are known." 

It is this infinite variety in human life, together 
with the peculiar interest which every member of the 
human race possesses for our Lord, that made our 
Lord's work such a joy to Him. The finding of a 
lost soul was with Him, to use His own images, like 
that of the shepherd finding the sheep whose name 
he knew and whose peculiarities he cared for ■ or that 
of the woman finding the coin which not only had a 
beauty of its own and a place of its own in the cir- 
1 Gal. iii. 28. 3 Rev. ii. 17. 



The Love of Souls. 205 

clet for her head, but, as part of an old family heir- 
loom, was bound up with family traditions ; or yet, 
again, like that of the father meeting again, after a 
long separation, his boy, whose repentance and return 
home he had yearned after. 

So the words of Keble are not overstrained, ex- 
pressing indeed that which is short of rather than 
that which is in excess of the truth : 

" Thou art as much His care, as if beside 

Nor man nor angel lived in heaven or earth ; 

Thus sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide 
To light up worlds or wake an insect's mirth ; 

They shine and shine with unexhausted store. 

Thou art Thy Saviour's darling ; seek no more." 

Of course there is much more in our Lord's love 
for souls than we have ventured to suggest. There is 
that love which naturally springs out of His Death 
for them. That for which we hazard our lives is 
much more precious to us than that which required 
no such venture. But we have quite enough for seri- 
ous thought. This was His constraining motive, His 
joy, and one source of His strange influence amongst 
men. " The central power of Christ's ministry," 
writes Bishop Brooks, " is the intense value which 
the Saviour always sets upon the souls for which He 
lived and died. It shines in everything He says and 
does. It looks out from His eyes when they are 
happiest and saddest. It trembles in the most lov- 
ing consolations and thunders in the most passionate 



206 The Ministry of "the Seer" 

rebukes which come from His lips. It is the inspira- 
tion at once of His pity and His indignation." And 
he rightly adds, "That power still continues wher- 
ever the same value of the soul is present. If we 
could see how precious the human soul is as Christ 
saw it, our ministry would approach the effectiveness 
of Christ's." At least this must be our endeavor, at 
least we must try to correct old impressions, to re- 
move class prejudices, to judge not after " man's 
judgment," but as He would judge if He were in our 
place. 

The chief interest of our parish, then, will not con- 
sist in its fine church, its well-trained choir, or its 
valuable historic associations ; it will not be found 
in the fact that there are a large number of wealthy 
and intelligent people living in it; but in this, that 
there are souls whom Christ loves and desires to 
save. The fact that He loves each one, no matter 
what his circumstances may be, shows that he is 
precious. It is our duty, then, to try and discover 
the value that perhaps lies hidden away. 

" Have printed in your remembrance " is the seri- 
ous appeal of the Church — " have printed in your 
remembrance ' ' — how great a treasure is " committed 
to your charge." It is something we are apt to for- 
get or be careless about; something, then, which 
needs to be ever before our mind like the written 
words of a text which we hang upon our walls. 

This, then, is our first thought — that if we look 
upon our parish with Christ's eyes, it must be inter- 



The Value of Each Soul. 207 

esting. It may be hard and difficult to work, just as 
in some mines, the ore lying deep, shafts must be 
sunk far below the surface. There may be dangers of 
flooding or explosion, but being valuable, it is neces- 
sarily interesting. 

In the second place, not only is the mine, as a 
whole, interesting, but also each piece of ore that 
comes to the surface. Who knows but that the stone 
flung carelessly away may not conceal some great 
treasure ! So each soul the Priest comes into contact 
with has a separate interest of its own. It may be 
that one alone will reward him for all the work 
and pains he has bestowed upon the whole parish. 
The education of but one Prince has sometimes been 
thought to be an occupation deserving not only a 
man's whole time for many years, but the highest 
ability that can be found. Think of his future, men 
say; what responsibilities lie before him. And yet 
what is his earthly future compared with that of one 
whose destiny it is to judge angels? 

In the third place, the Priest must be prepared to 
sacrifice himself in order to find the treasure. The 
Church, our Lord tells us, is like a merchantman 
seeking goodly pearls who, when he had found one 
of great price, went and sold all that he had and 
bought it. So, too, the Priest, on finding in some 
soul the pearl of great price, gives up everything for 
the time in order to secure it. Time in conversa- 
tion and letters, money advantageously bestowed in 
pictures and books, prayers without number — all that 



208 The Ministry of " the Seer" 

he has — he freely bestows to gain that one. And 
not only this, but for a time he neglects " the ninety 
and nine." He cannot do two things at once, so 
during the days he spends in this search he leaves 
his work of edification, placing it in the hands of 
others till he can return with the all-absorbing task 
completed. 

Lastly, for every return he makes special thanksgiv- 
ing, inviting the fellowship of the Church. They, 
too, must be interested in this most happy recov- 
ery ; they, too, must be prepared to give a welcome 
to one who will need all the strength they can give 
him to stand firm and strong. It is not only his work 
but theirs, not only his joy but theirs. 

Yes, here lies our success, and therefore here lies 
our best inspiration. For, as Canon Liddon says, 
" Mankind are open to such world-embracing love ! 
It is a force the might of which they involuntarily 
recognize ; it is as powerful in one age as another, in 
one society or civilization as another ; it is always 
needful, as it is always welcome, to the mental and 
bodily sufferings of mankind; it gives the man who 
brings it influence with souls which he may and must 
turn to his Master's glory ; it gives him this influ- 
ence in the largest measure at the time when he most 
earnestly declines it." * 

1 " Clerical Life," p. 108. 



DEVOTIONS. 

{From " Meditations on the Life of Christ," by Thomas a Kempis.) 

I bless and thank Thee, O Lord Jesu Christ, for the 
spotless sanctity of Thy Life, which for a long period 
Thou leddest privately with Thy parents in Nazareth. 
From Thy twelfth to Thy thirtieth year, in great pov- 
erty, humility, and obedience, didst Thou abide with 
them. . . . O, the humility of Christ ! How dost 
Thou confound the pride of my vanity, and with what 
a bright example dost Thou admonish me to shun all 
vain show, to avoid the crowds of the outside world, 
to choose a life of obscurity ; desiring to be known of 
God alone, taking heed above all things to my own sal- 
vation ! Suffer me not to thrust myself rashly before 
men for the sake of edification ; may I rather, with dili- 
gent endeavor, study the Word of Life until the voice 
from heaven shall call, " Bring forth fruit." 

{From Arvisenef s " Memoriale Vitce Sacerdotalis.") 

O Jesu, good Shepherd, who wert seen on earth and 
didst dwell amongmen, grantthat, by ever studying Thy 
commandments, I may be filled with Thy most sacred 
doctrine. 

Grant that, ever mindful of Thy blessings, I may more 
and more burn with Thy love. Grant that, continually 
14 



2io Devotions. 

meditating upon Thy perfection, I may day by day be 
more conformed to Thee. 

O my soul, praise Jesus everywhere ; love Jesus 
everywhere ; worship Jesus everywhere ; offer thyself 
to Jesus everywhere ; sigh without ceasing for Jesus, 
until thou dost expire in Jesus, and reignest forever 
with Him. 

Hymns : joj A. &= M.j 445 American Hymnal. 
When morning gilds the skies. 

1/8 A. & M.j 434 American Hymnal. 
Jesu, the very thought of Thee. 



IX. 



THE EAGLE OR THE MINISTRY OF "THE 
SEER." 



MEDITATION. 

For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may 
be sanctified in truth. — St. John xvii. ig. 

What does this mean ? Sanctification signifies sep- 

(1) aration. So the holy vessels were sancti- 
Our Lord's fied as being separated from all common 

Sanctification. use> So the Nazarites were sanctified, 
being separated in certain particulars from other men. 
In what ways did our Lord separate Himself? Firstly, 
He separated Himself intellectually, concentrating His 
Mind on but one Book — the Holy Scriptures. Secondly, 
He brought all the natural inclinations of His Perfect 
Human Nature towards statesmanship, art, or poetry 
under the one Sovereign Purpose of His Life — the Re- 
demption of the world. Thirdly, He who needed not 
to fast nor to give alms did both for their sakes whom 
He served with the most devoted love to the end. 
Fourthly, He who was and is the Life willingly " strait- 
ened" Himself and chose the narrow path of death in 
preference to the abundance of life to which He was 
invited. 

"For their sakes " — These twelve men whom he had 

(2) chosen were the unceasing object of His 
its Purpose, prayers and every act of consecration. 

The life which to the world seemed so narrow and lim- 
ited, He directed with a view to their sanctification. 
The wider life outside, which he did not directly touch, 



Meditation. 213 

He would touch through His Apostles, for from Him 
they would catch that spirit of real consecration which 
would make them a power in the world and lead others 
to sanctification. 

Like our High Priest, we, too, must sanctify ourselves 
( 3 ) for the sake of our people. Habits of 

Our Sanctifi- life that are not necessary for others are 
cation. needful for us, because only by them will 

our parishioners learn certain great truths. " As with 
the priest so with the people." If our public prayers 
are scanty, theirs will be. If our charity is mean, so 
will theirs be. If we neither make nor keep a fixed 
rule for the Friday and Lenten Fasts, they will disre- 
gard fasting altogether. If we make no daily study of 
the Bible, if other books are evidently more to us than 
God s Book, then they will neglect Scripture study. 
The world will regard a consecrated life as narrow and 
limited, but " for the sake " of those we serve we must 
bear the reproach. 

Contemplating Thy life of sanctification, of willing 
submission to restraints which Thou 

Resolution. . 

didst not need, I desire to bring my life 
under a fixed rule of Scripture study and meditation, of 
fasting and almsgiving. Grant me, O Lord, Thy help 
so to do, having but one motive, Thy glory and the good 
of my flock. 



IX. 



THE EAGLE OR THE MINISTRY OF "THE 
SEER." 

We have spoken of three great characteristics in 
the Inner life of our Lord and Master. We shall now 
consider how they may be reproduced in ourselves. 

The love of Jesus, which corresponds with us to 
His Love of the Father, can only be experienced by 
those who know Jesus. This knowledge is spiritual 
rather than intellectual, and yet it depends on the 
efforts the mind makes to understand the Revelation 
of Jesus given us in the Holy Scriptures. Bible 
knowledge is, then, essential to the life of the 
Priest. 

The love of the Holy Ghost is maintained and 
deepened by unceasing prayer. Prayer, then, is an- 
other means for the reproduction of the inner life of 
Jesus. 

The love of souls — that affection all -important to 
the work of the Priest — if it is to be kept living, 
warm, and true, must be nourished by a life of con- 
tinuous self-sacrifice. We must, therefore, know 
something of what is intended by self-consecra- 
tion. 



Aids to the Inner Life. 215 

(z) Knowledge of the Scriptures. 

This knowledge is placed by the Church in the 
very forefront of the Priest's intellectual life. When 
he was ordained to the Diaconate, the only gift made 
over to him was the New Testament, and when to the 
Priesthood the Holy Bible ; the Church showing him 
by a touching and expressive symbolism that she ex- 
pects him to be at least " the man of one book," 
knowing the Scriptures even if he knows nothing of 
anything else. But she is not satisfied with this. Be- 
fore delivering him her Great Treasure, she exacts 
a pledge of hearty and diligent reverence. " Will 
you be diligent in reading of the Holy Scriptures 
and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the 
same, laying aside the study of the world and the 
flesh? ' ' She requires of him not only diligence, i. e., 
assiduous application and persevering effort, but 
self-denial. Not only is there something to be em- 
braced, but something also to be given up. The 
"study of the world and the flesh" is to be laid 
aside in order that the whole attention may be con- 
centrated on the Holy Scriptures. There is nothing 
narrow and limited in this exaction of the Church, 
for the Holy Scriptures are not prescribed as contain- 
ing the only books the priest is to look at. She 
knows quite well that the comprehension of the 
Sacred Word depends on the comprehension of other 
things, such as man in himself, man also as seen in 
history. The Bible is as perfectly human as it is 



216 The Ministry of "the Seer." 

perfectly Divine, the outward is as real as the in- 
ward, and therefore the knowledge of language, his- 
tory, geography, human thought, and science is of 
high importance. All these are the studies that 
" help to the knowledge of the same." The Church, 
then, has not so much in mind any particular books 
or studies which are to be laid aside as a particular 
point of view. All our reading is to have but one 
aim and end, and that the better comprehension of 
the Divine Revelation as given in the Holy Scrip- 
tures ; all reading that is without this definite regard 
is to be given up. 

There is nothing unreasonable, we repeat, in this 
pledge we are asked to give. The Bible stands to 
literature as Christ to mankind. It sums it all up and 
explains its aspirations and desires. In making it 
the centre of our studies we are not growing narrower, 
but broader. Philosophy, history, geography, poe- 
try, fiction, and even science have a loftier meaning 
attached to them, and at once become alive with a 
fresh interest. 

It is not with this end in view, however, that we 
make the Bible the centre of our intellectual work ; 
we study the Bible in order to know our Lord. He 
is the Light of all Scripture. The Law, Psalms, and 
Prophets bear witness of Him, as well as the Gos- 
pels and Epistles. To omit the knowledge of but 
one book of the Bible is to shut ourselves off from 
one aspect of Christ's character, and perhaps that 
which it most concerns us to know. 



Bible Study. 21 y 

Enough has now been said to show the importance 
of Bible study and the place which it occupies in 
the mind of the Church. And yet even in these 
days of " Companions " and " Aids " to the Bible, 
of Commentaries and Expositions, how compara- 
tively little is the Bible studied by the clergy after 
their Ordination ! How many have read through the 
Prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the Song of 
Songs, or the Book of Ecclesiastes ? We are afraid 
to confess our ignorance of some modern work of fic- 
tion, and yet hear without shame some chapter or 
verse of God's Word quoted which is quite strange 
to us. 

Now let us look at His Example, and seeing His 
zeal for the Inspired Record, catch something of that 
which made it burn so brightly. And first His study 
of the Original Language of the Old Testament. 
We shall not enter here upon the question of our 
Lord's knowledge beyond the assumption of what is 
generally admitted — namely, that granted that He 
knew all things as God at the same time as He knew 
only some things as man, He did really learn letters 
just as we have to learn them. The translation of 
Omniscience into human forms and expressions of 
knowledge He acquired, and, it would seem, by de- 
grees. Aramaic was, we may venture to say, His 
mother tongue. Hebrew and Greek He learned, if, 
as seems probable, He knew them. That He was 
acquainted with Hebrew seems a natural inference 
from His own expressions (see St. Matthew v. 18) 



218 The Ministry of "the Seer." 

and from His reading the Scriptures in the synagogue 
of Nazareth ; for it is probable that the synagogue roll 
of Nazareth, from which He was invited to read on 
His return from Judaea, was in Hebrew, the reader 
having first to read it in that language, and then to 
translate it into the language of the people. 1 It is 
not so clearly made out that He learned Greek ; but 
as the Greek Version of the Scriptures was extensively 
circulated in Palestine and as the New Testament 
writers very frequently quote from it, it is at least 
not improbable that He was as familiar with this 
as with Hebrew. When we consider the narrow limi- 
tations of His earthly home, crowded as it was with 
Joseph's children, the claims that His profession as 
a carpenter made upon Him, the difficulty in Naza- 
reth of procuring books or teachers, we feel that this 
learning must have been attended with so many hard- 
ships that no one but He could have overcome them. 
But as His zeal for the House of the Lord led Him 
to make that public manifestation of His personal 
Authority which He was always seeking to avoid, so 
His zeal for the Scriptures led Him to give up pre- 
cious hours, snatched from sleep or recreation, to the 
study of those languages through which it had been 
given to men. 

If He did this who needed not to do it, can we, 

who need it so much, do less ? It may be said that 

the sacrifice involved in learning Hebrew does not 

bring such results as make it worth our while, that 

x Stalker, " Imago Christi," p. 149. 



Linguistic Knowledge. 219 

we can find all that is necessary from those who have 
attained a knowledge that we can never hope to have, 
that others have become helpful teachers without it. 
All this may be true enough ; but one question still 
remains unanswered : What personal sacrifice have 
we made for the Word of God ? What have we lost 
in order to find its hidden treasures ? Have we not 
learned Latin, French, or German with much less 
worthy an object in view ? Perhaps our little love for 
the Bible maybe due to the very little it has cost us. 
" Where our treasure is there our heart will be also." 
But if the language of the Old Testament must by 
some be put aside, the same cannot be said of that 
of the New. This, in a measure, all have learned 
before their Ordination ; it remains, then, that they 
increase the measure, that they study their Greek Tes- 
tament daily, that they become so familiar with it as 
to find it a real companion. Divinely prepared as 
the Greek language was to become the chosen vehicle 
of God's thoughts, divinely selected as the particular 
forms employed in the New Testament are to express 
God's mind as nearly as is possible in human lan- 
guage, it behoves all those who are able, to give the 
outward form that reverence which it certainly de- 
serves. As a holy devotion was shown to the Body 
of the Lord to make some reparation for its shock- 
ing ill-treatment at the hands of men — a devotion 
evidently commended by God — so a similar devo- 
tion ought to be given to that outward form of Holy 
Scripture which is the shrine of the mind of God. 



220 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

But our Blessed Lord was not content with a knowl- 
edge of the sacred language. He also took pains to 
store His Holy Mind with the very words of Scrip- 
ture. We may say at once that He knew the whole 
of the Old Testament by heart. The Psalms, the 
Prophets, the Law, were alike at command when asked 
for. Alone in the wilderness, or in public surrounded 
by enemies, enjoying a quiet hour with His disciples, 
or suffering the agonies of death upon the Cross, it 
is the Scripture to which He ever turns naturally 
and easily, as we might turn to the familiar words of 
the Lord's Prayer. He cared to remember but one 
Book, and that was the " Word of God." 

The faculty of memory is a very precious gift. 
That we should be able to store up within our minds 
the sayings of others and bring them out in all their 
freshness perhaps years after we first heard them is 
indeed remarkable. We feel it a reproach that we 
use it so little, and that the use we have made has 
been so inadequate. Some take pains to remember 
such jests and good stories as may awaken mirth 
in others, others such wise sayings as may give them 
some credit when they pass them on, others the lan- 
guage of poets and dramatists wherewith to stimulate 
their minds and those of their friends ; but how few 
take pains to know the very words of the only Book 
which, so far as we can tell, He knew ! How few 
even learn by heart the words of the Incarnate God ! 
And yet we should strive to attain this not only out 
of reverence for the Word of God, not merely because 



The Words of Scripture. 221 

in so doing we are following in His steps, but because 
without it our ministry is hampered. Mr. Spurgeon 
is quite right in saying " that people like to have 
the ipsissima verba of Scripture. The many are 
not always sufficiently capable of grasping the sense 
apart from the language, of gazing, so to speak, upon 
the truth disembodied, but when they hear the precise 
words reiterated again and again, they are more edi- 
fied, and the truth forces itself more firmly upon 
their memories." We remember hearing of a great 
preacher in Australia whom hundreds flocked to listen 
to chiefly on account of his apt and frequent quota- 
tions from Scripture. One verse every night before 
retiring would soon make us rich in the literal knowl- 
edge of the "Word of God." But it is not more 
necessary for our public than for our private min- 
istrations. The " Word of God " is as much alive 
to-day as it ever was, and sharper than any two-edged 
sword. No rebuke goes deeper than one couched 
in its words. The reproach " Have ye never read 
out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast 
perfected praise ? ' ' went home to the hearts of those 
who would have Him still the children's cries, 
as the words " Have ye not read that which was 
spoken to you by God saying, I am the God of 
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob?" went home to the consciences of the Sad- 
ducean sceptics. 

Now, for this use it is imperative that we should 
have not only a large amount of Scripture at com- 



222 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

mand, but also a profound conviction of its divine 
authoritativeness. It is to this we now turn. The 
authority of Scripture was paramount with our Lord. 
Not one jot or one tittle should ever pass away with- 
out fulfilment. Heaven and earth might pass away, 
but the "Word of God" abideth forever. So believ- 
ing, our Lord used it freely. The " Word of God " 
divided with Himself the supreme seat of Authority. 
At times He would say, " But I say unto you " ; at 
other times, " Whatsaith the Scripture? " or " Have 
ye not read ?" or, briefly, " It is written." That 
decided the question. There was no further appeal. 
When He takes in hand a sweeping reform like that 
of cleansing the Temple, He justifies it with this 
brief statement: "It is written, My House is the 
House of Prayer ' ' ; when questioned about divorce, 
He asks, " Have ye not read that He which made 
them at the beginning, made them male and female ? 
and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father 
and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they 
twain shall be one flesh." 

And having this feeling of reverence for it, He is 
indignant with those who presume to tamper with it. 
There was no further proof needed of the separation 
of many from God than the fact that they made the 
" Word of God " of no effect through their tradition, 
substituting their doctrine of Corban for the teach- 
ing of the fifth commandment (St. Mark vii. 6, 10- 
13). But perhaps no better example of His devotion 
to the Word could be shown than that which St. John 



Authority of Scripture. 223 

gives us in his record of the Passion. 1 We see Him 
contemplating the divinely drawn pictures of Scrip- 
ture in His last moments. Seeing one that yet 
remained to be fulfilled, that which depicted the 
dying Messiah craving and yet in vain for some 
draught of refreshing water to cool His fevered 
tongue, He cried, "I thirst," that this last insult 
might be paid Him, that the old words, " They gave 
Me gall to eat, and when I was thirsty they gave Me 
vinegar to drink," 2 might be fulfilled. 

Here, too, we need to learn a lesson. Whilst none 
will regret the very healthy reaction which has taken 
place against that unreal quotation of Scripture com- 
mon in days gone by when texts apart from contexts 
were the staple of religious conversation, yet all dis- 
ciples of the Word must regret that not only is the 
authority of Scripture weakened, but that many fear 
to use it at all except in the House of God. There 
is a general and widespread shyness respecting the 
Bible. In spite of its world-wide fame and the in- 
creasing attention given by the few to it, men shrink 
from using it as an authority in morals or doctrine. 
They prefer to rest their case on the reasonableness 
of the question at issue ; they are indisposed to assert 
shortly, " It is written," or " The Bible says so and 
so. ' ' It may be said in defence that such a statement 
would carry no weight., and it is true that at the time 
it is likely that with some it would carry but slight 
conviction ; but, in any case, whether its use be ulti- 

1 St. John x. 35. 2 St. John xix. 28, and Ps. lxix. 21. 



224 The Ministry of "the Seer." 

mately successful or not, we are bound to make the 
appeal, we are bound to let men know that there is a 
Divine Authority upon the earth by which all things 
are tried and measured, and that their happiness con- 
sists in their submission to it. With one solemn 
reflection we close. It is plainly implied in our 
Lord's teaching that the Bible will not only be the 
judge, but the accuser of those who have neglected 
its teaching. " Think not," He said to the Jews, 
" that I will accuse you to the Father : there is one 
that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. ' ' x 
If that were the case with the Law, what must it be 
with the whole Bible ? Now, no people have put 
such trust in the Bible as those of the Anglo-Saxon 
race. Are we, the leaders, prepared to defend our- 
selves against its accusations, its definite charge that 
whilst we have claimed to be a Bible-loving people 
we have shown but scant obedience to its commands 
and teachings ? 

(2) Prayer. 

To know Christ we must know the Scriptures, which 
testify of Him. But this knowledge, if it is to be- 
come a part of ourselves, must be saturated in the 
atmosphere of Prayer. It is this that marks the dif- 
ference between the study of the Bible and Medita- 
tion. The former is mainly intellectual, the latter 
primarily spiritual. The former is the exercise of 
our mind upon the Truths of Revelation in order 
1 St. John v. 45. 



Meditation. 225 

that we may see their relation to one another and to 
that perfect whole of which they are a part. Medi- 
tation, on the other hand, is the exercise of our 
spirit on the same Truths that we may see them in 
relation to ourselves. And as we may be said never 
to know a thing truly until we have seen it in rela- 
tion to self, it may be true to add that we never 
know anything until we have made it our own by 
Meditation. 

Meditation, then, is not an exercise only necessary 
for the few who set before themselves a high standard, 
but for all who, without it, are in the paradoxical posi- 
tion characterized by our Lord as " seeing and yet 
not perceiving, hearing and not understanding." 
As Canon Liddon has said, " Meditation is a duty 
with which every person who is attempting to lead 
a religious life is supposed to be familiar." x If, 
then, it be incumbent on all to meditate, how much 
more upon those whose work is not only to stimulate, 
but to guide the meditations of others ! To quote 
the same writer again, " It lies at the root of the 
priestly life and is of primary importance." And 
if we are to make any progress with it, it must be 
made daily. We cannot put it off on the days we 
write our sermons and addresses, nor postpone it 
when we find ourselves encumbered with business, 
without finding our next attempt more difficult than 
the previous one. It may occasion surprise that 
it is spoken of here rather than in connection with 
1 " Clerical Life and Work," p. 22. 
15 



226 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

the study of Scripture. It is true that Scripture is 
the main subject of Meditation, but prayer is its 
working power. We could make profitable medita- 
tions without Scripture, on the Articles of. the Creed, 
the Petitions of the Lord's Prayer, but there could 
be no meditation without prayer. It is by prayer we 
take the first step and place ourselves in the Presence 
of God ; by prayer we set the wings of the imagina- 
tion in flight, soaring with our thought to some height 
where it will catch the light of God ; by prayer we 
concentrate our attention on that which is now illu- 
minated, seizing that one lesson which seems to be 
most prominent ; by prayer we stimulate the emo- 
tions of love, grief, or hate ; and, lastly, by prayer 
we gird up the powers of the will to make one brief 
resolution. 

Prayer, then, is the very life of meditation. 

But not only this. Prayer is, as we have already 
noticed, the means whereby we abide in the power of 
the Anointing of the Holy Ghost. It was whilst He 
was praying that " the Holy Ghost descended in a 
bodily shape like a dove upon Him." x The power 
of Unction ; that strange, mysterious power which 
gives to simple words such a magnetic force, which 
compels attention, restrains frivolity, and so often 
mightily persuades ; that power the absence of which 
nothing can really compensate for, the presence 
of which all enjoy; that power which is as often 
found in slow, quiet tones as in urgent, passionate 
1 St. Luke iii. 22. 



Prayer. 227 

declamation, in the Bible Class as in the crowded 
Cathedral — whence comes it ? From the Holy Ghost, 
the Giver of Life. How comes it ? In answer to 
prayer. The man of prayer is, without exception, the 
man of unction. It is Prayer, then, that gives life 
to our preaching and teaching and power to all our 
words. 

But, further, Prayer sustains the weight of our li- 
turgical and congregational worship. The Offices, 
as we are apt to call them somewhat lightly — even 
that tremendous office, the Holy Communion, by 
which some have been moved to tears — may be, and 
often are, it is to be feared, very burdensome. The 
priest that rushes from careless chatter or hot argu- 
ment into the Sanctuary of God needs something 
more than the brief moment in the Vestry if he is 
to take up the words of the solemn Confession, the 
prayers and psalms of Saints of God, without hypoc- 
risy. " For the efficient discharge of this one duty," 
writes Dr. Liddon of the daily recitation of Matins 
and Evensong, " a devotional and collected temper is 
required. . . . The case of a man who should 
ignore or neglect the formation of such a temper and 
yet attempt to obey the Church's rule would be 
lamentable but certain. He would, first of all, be 
distressed by the contrast between his own inward 
life, its aims, tone, and atmosphere, and that of the 
formularies, from periodical contact with which his 
sense of duty would not allow him to escape. Gradu- 
ally this sense of contrast would weaken and die, 



228 The Ministry of " the Seer" 

and the service would be said more and more mechan- 
ically. At length a crisis would arrive, however 
originating ; nature would revolt at a degrading and 
hypocritical mechanism claiming to represent the 
soul's aspirations towards its Maker; and the prac- 
tice would be abandoned, without a suspicion that it 
might have become the stimulus and centre of vital 
religion." z 

All this is equally true of the Sunday services. 
The public devotions of the Church are not less bur 
densome if only occasionally used. It is true that 
the presence of a congregation compels a certain 
outward decency and appearance of reverence, but it 
cannot give that undefinable something which makes 
men feel that their Priest is praying, nor can it re- 
move that outward affectation and vanity which at 
times appear to enjoy the majestic solemnity of the 
Prayer Book, as though it gave a unique opportunity 
for fine phrasing. No, if we are to escape from the 
horrible temptation to use the service for our own 
advantage, from the only less horrible formality 
which prays without knowing what it prays for, from 
the coldness which chills a congregation into idle 
listlessness, we must be men of prayer. In the mul- 
tiplication of services there has been a disposition 
to find the time for them out of that which our less 
"devote" forefathers gave to their private prayers 
and Bible reading. The early celebration, followed 
by breakfast and that again by Matins, leaves but lit- 
1 " Clerical Life and Work," p. 22. 



Public and Private Prayer. 229 

tie time for quiet devotion. And yet the increase 
of Church offices demands the lengthening rather 
than the shortening of those hours when we can go 
aside and be still with God. If we could but estab- 
lish a rule which provided that our hours of pri- 
vate devotion should at least correspond with our 
hours of public devotion, how great a change would 
ensue ! And if this be thought too exacting, it is 
not too much to ask that all our services should 
be followed, as well as prefaced, by the spirit of 
prayer; i. e., by as quiet and serious a pause as op- 
portunity will allow. But we have now said enough 
as to the importance of prayer — a habit so essential 
to the Priest that if he is without it, and not minded 
to get it, he had better seek any other profession 
than that which demands it as its first and last 
qualification. 

Persuaded as to its necessity, deploring our poverty 
in it, we turn to Him, our Example, for guidance, 
with those old words, " Lord, teach us how to pray." 
And as we contemplate that picture of Him which 
the Gospels give us, we feel that His life was a life 
of Prayer. 1 The words " Father, I thank Thee that 
Thou heardest Me, and I knew that Thou hearest Me 
always ' ' 2 imply a constant habit of prayer. It is 
difficult for us to understand why He Who was Perfect 
God as well as Perfect Man should pray, and appar- 

1 Cf. Mason, "The Conditions of our Lord's Life on 
Earth," p. 75. 

2 St. John xi. 41, 42. 



230 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

ently, as in the Garden of Gethsemane, for Himself 
as well as for others; but we cannot and must not 
ignore the fact because of the mystery in which it 
is enwrapped, but rather express our gratitude that 
in that part of our life which is hardest He has given 
us an example that we should follow His steps. 

And first we notice the spirit of our Lord's Pray- 
ers, their intense reality. The writer of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews tells us that He offered up prayers 
and supplications with strong crying and tears, and 
that He was heard because of His godly reverence. 1 
He is probably referring to the prayers in the Gar- 
den of Gethsemane, which forced the precious Blood 
from our Lord's veins. This energy and intensity 
of feeling made His prayers different from those of 
all others, and so impressed the disciples that they 
wished to pray like Him. " As He was praying in a 
certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples 
said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray." 2 But with 
all this strength and energy of feeling there was 
joined a godly fear, a holy reverence which led the 
Son of God to kneel upon His knees and fall upon 
His face in the presence of His Father. 3 

We contrast our prayers with His in this respect 
and feel confounded. But whilst we ask whether it 
is not impossible for us to feel that High Presence 
as He did, we should also ask whether we are taking 
pains to make our prayers more real. Certain helps 
at least should be used. We can prepare ourselves for 

1 Heb. v. 7. 2 St. Luke xi. 1. 3 St. Luke xxii. 41. 



Helps to Prayer. 231 

prayer; do as David did — " set it in order" before 
we call for the fire of God. 1 We can make an act of 
the Presence of God before we begin, and then so 
arrange our subjects of prayer and their order that 
we may have some clear idea as to what we intend. 
Then, again, we may adopt certain forms for the dif- 
ferent parts of our prayers, kneeling or standing, as 
the case may be. We may, in fact, look upon Prayer 
not as a mere duty which is pleasing to God, but as a 
hard piece of work to be prepared for and entered 
upon with all that serious earnestness which a diffi- 
cult task demands ; and, therefore, because it is hard, 
choose such times for prayer as may best enable us to 
fulfil its conditions. It is by definite and well-sus- 
tained effort along the lines indicated in the Lord's 
Prayer that we shall learn the language of prayer; 
learn, that is, how to address ourselves to the Living 
God our Father. No foreign tongue is easy; and 
though our citizenship is in heaven and we ought, 
therefore, to have some familiarity with its language, 
we need long and careful training before we can ex- 
press ourselves in any way as we should wish. But in 
this we shall find great assistance in the Collects of 
our Prayer Book. Not only is their opening always 
solemn, but it constantly indicates the character of 
the Petition that is to follow; so, for example, we 
call upon God as the Creator and Preserver of all 
mankind when we are about to ask for those things 
that are needed for all sorts and conditions of men. 
1 Ps. v. 3. 



232 The Ministry of " the Seer.'* 

We are thus taught with abundance of illustration 
as to what we mean by making an act of faith in the 
Presence of God. 

Still, with all the helps provided, and exercising 
as much diligence as we may, there yet remain such 
a coldness and formality about our prayers that we 
might well despair of progress were it not for one 
thought — that which gave the great Apostle such con- 
solation — that of the help which the Holy Ghost gives 
in prayer. He " helpeth our infirmities," making 
" intercession for us with groanings which cannot be 
uttered." He not only prompts us what to say and 
shapes our prayers, but when we seem able to say 
nothing, frames our silence into gracious and effica- 
cious prayers. 1 

We now pass on to notice our Lord's Example in 
11 Times for Prayer." We need not repeat, what we 
have said, that His life was a life of prayer. His 
eternal oneness with the Father, which was never 
broken, assures us of that. And when the sense of 
it was mysteriously withdrawn during those three 
terrible hours of darkness on Good Friday, He still 
prayed. It might, then, be thought surprising that 
we should speak of " times " for prayer with Him 
whose life was all prayer. But the expression is jus- 
tified by the Gospels, which bring before us certain 
occasions which seem to demand from Him special 
prayer. Such, for example, was that great crisis in 
the history of the infant Church when our Lord was 
1 Rom. viii. 26. 



Special Times of Prayer. 233 

about to ask of His Apostles what their eighteen 
months' training had led them to believe concerning 
His Person. On their reply to His question, " Whom 
say ye that lam?" the future of the Church seemed 
to depend. It is not unnatural to learn that it was 
asked after Prayer. 1 So, again, when He was about 
to choose the Twelve, He spent the whole night in 
prayer to God. 2 So, also, after a time of outward 
excitement, when the crowds, miraculously fed, 
surged about Him desiring to carry Him off and 
make Him King, " He departed into a mountain 
Himself alone," 3 the purpose doubtless being prayer. 
So, again, when the last great temptation is upon 
Him, when the final struggle begins, He gives Him- 
self up to prayer. 4 And, again, on the Cross, when 
He is at death's door, His last spoken words are 
those of prayer. 5 

Do not these occasions suggest similar times for 
prayer for ourselves ? 

With us there come certain crises in the life of our 
parish when its faith and devotion are to be tested by 
some demand. We look forward to them with some 
anxiety, we wish they were well over, we long for 
tact and wisdom that we may make a right decision, 
we pray for help ; but do we pray for our people as 
well as for ourselves, that they may be enabled to 
rise to the height which the occasion demands ? So, 

1 St. Luke ix. 18. 2 St. Luke vi. 12. 

3 St. John vi. 15. 4 St. Luke xxii. 41. 

5 St. Luke xxiii. 46. 



234 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

too, we continually " have to make choice of fit per- 
sons " for the sacred rite of Confirmation. On it 
much depends. Do we pray long and earnestly that 
it may be rightly made? So, too, we have our days 
of success as well as disappointment. On one or 
two rare occasions a speech, address, or sermon may 
carry us on the top of a great wave of popularity. It 
will be well then, if, remembering the Great Exam- 
ple, we are found lying low at the foot of the Cross 
of shame, recognizing in the peril of success that the 
Cross alone can be our boast. We need say nothing, 
perhaps, about the necessity of prayer in temptation. 
In it lies our only hope of escape ; but it may be 
useful to remember that His temptation did not 
cease the very moment He prayed, and that the char- 
acteristics of His Prayer at that time, so far as they 
are known to us, were brevity and repetition. 

Thus much for the occasions of some of our Lord's 
Prayers. One word about the hour He found most 
suitable for prayer. There can be no doubt about 
this. "In the morning," so we are told, "rising 
up a great while before day, He went out and 
departed into a solitary place and there prayed." 1 
" We are at no loss," writes the Rev. Daniel Moore, 
in a beautiful passage in his " Aids to Prayer," " for 
one reason — for this : the early morning was the only 
time which He could properly call His own. And 
even this men gave Him unwillingly ; for, as we learn 
from the next words, before His holy soul could 
1 St. Mark i. 35. 



Fixed Times of Prayer. 235 

breathe out all its fulness He was interrupted. The 
people in the house followed after Him, saying, 
' All men seek Thee.' And the liability to be inter- 
rupted in sacred exercises belongs to us also. Let 
our early hour for devotion pass, let sleep or some 
worldly call thrust itself between us and it, and 
how hard we find that hour to recover ! Indeed, 
with the majority of mankind, we know such recov- 
ery is simply and absolutely impossible. 
Let us endeavor, therefore, to be early with our de- 
votions. Nothing but physical infirmity or urgent 
necessity should be suffered to hinder us from giv- 
ing to God the day's strength and prime and best. 
Everything favors us at that season. It is the Sab- 
bath of the day. The first hour of the day is the 
' Lord's hour,' even as the first day of the week is 
the ' Lord's day.' And the understanding is clear 
at that time, and the heart unruffled, and the spirit 
buoyant, whilst the sweet silence which pervades all 
outward things is as if heaven and earth were hold- 
ing in their breath that they might hear God's chil- 
dren pray." 

It is through our devotion to set and fixed times 
for prayer that we maintain the spirit of prayer and 
gradually approach the Apostle's rule of praying 
without ceasing. "Some of us," writes Charles 
Spurgeon, " could honestly say that we are seldom a 
quarter of an hour without speaking to God, and that 
not as a duty, but as an instinct." Such are led to 
pray about everything. With one of the Provosts of 



236 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

Worcester it was a rule never to open his letters with- 
out prayer, and Frederick Maurice felt that prayer 
before newspaper reading would be as suitable as 
prayer before meals. In such ways we learn practi- 
cally that our " citizenship is in heaven," and that 
we can only safely and wisely look at things here from 
that lofty point of view. 

And this leads us naturally to the thought of sub- 
jects of prayer. What light does our Lord's example 
throw upon this ? Both His practice and His model 
Prayer show us how large a space belongs to Interces- 
sion. His Practice was almost exclusively that of 
advocacy in behalf of others. " He began His work 
of intercession for us here upon earth." And the 
Prayer He gave us shows the same unselfish devo- 
tion. Out of six petitions the first three concern the 
interests of others. Now, the teaching of His exam- 
ple in this respect is emphasized in the case of the 
Priest who is called to be not only a steward, but a 
watchman pledged to diligence in prayers. Such an 
one must, with his spiritual eye, take in the sweep 
of the whole horizon of God. Remembering the 
Apostolic injunction, " that supplications, prayers, 
intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all 
men," he endeavors to obey it not only by short, 
ejaculatory prayers, but by definite petitions for such 
things as he knows they most need. And finding the 
necessity of some order in so great and comprehen- 
sive a work, he welcomes that of Morning and Even- 
ing Prayer which provides a short but beautiful 



Intercession. 237 

office in which his intercessions are not only ordered, 
but quickened by the reading of God's Word and 
the praising of His Holy Name. So he is enabled 
" with diminished responsibilities to discharge daily 
that work of intercession which God awaits at his 
hands, on which depends the destiny of souls, and 
for which he must most solemnly give account here- 
after." 1 

( 3 ) Self-consecra tion. 

The study of Scripture for the personal knowledge 
of the living Lord, prayer for the abiding grace of 
unction, and self-consecration for the love of souls. 
It is this last power that we now consider. 

And, first, its relation to the love of souls. This 
pastoral affection, which is an altogether different 
thing from interest in the affairs of our people, 
which so nearly resembles the love of a parent for 
his offspring that the Scripture speaks of those who 
have it as " fathers," and those to whom they bear 
it as their " sons," 2 does not spring up fully formed 
on the day of Ordination. It is a plant of steady 
though somewhat slow growth, and is very much 
affected by its surroundings. Its root lies in self- 
consecration ; and for this reason : Self-consecra- 
tion means, as we shall see, the sacrifice of certain 
interests which are naturally dear to us, rather for 
the sake of our people than for our own self -imp rove - 

1 Liddon, " Clerical Life and Work," p. 18. 

2 1 Tim. i. 2 ; Titus i. 4. 



238 The Ministry of "the Seer!' 

ment or self-culture. " For their sakes " we sanctify 
ourselves. Now, where our treasure is there will our 
heart be also. Where we spend there we shall find 
our affections. The very effort to deny ourselves for 
the sake of those we serve stimulates and deepens 
our love. So there springs up within our hearts that 
love of souls which " believeth all things, hopeth all 
things, and endurethall things." 

But where shall we find this expression of the con- 
secrated life ? Nowhere so completely as in His 
Life whose devotion to Scripture and Prayer we have 
just contemplated. He it is Who speaks of cer- 
tain aspects of His life as self-consecration. " For 
their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be 
sanctified through the Truth." What were these 
aspects ? Those summed up in the Cross. It is to 
this that our Lord is looking forward as He utters 
these words. But they are not to be confined to that 
supreme act of self -oblation. From the day of His 
circumcision, when His Blood first flowed for the re- 
demption of the world — nay, from the moment of His 
birth to the day of His death — His life was marked by 
self-consecration. This is expressed in various ways. 
When a child of twelve, and surrounded by all the 
stimulating sights and sounds of His Father's House, 
there was a natural drawing towards that method of 
education to which our Lord was doubtless invited 
by the Rabbis, on whom His questioning had made 
so profound an impression ; but it was not in that 
direction that the Father's hand pointed, not in that 



Our Lord's Self-consecration. 239 

way that He could best sanctify others. So He sepa- 
rated Himself from it all, turned His back upon it, 
and went back to the narrow, crowded home at Naza- 
reth, that He might there learn those simple habits 
arid duties which would give Him access to the rude, 
uncultured mind of the Galilean. So, too, in His 
education He separated Himself, we may well be- 
lieve, from all other reading save that one Book 
which we now speak of as the Old Testament. And 
in His study of it His Blessed mind was ever di- 
rected to its inner teaching rather than its outward 
setting or its literary aspect. Again, there were burn- 
ing political questions in Palestine as there are with 
us ; one ever recurring was that of the payment of 
the tribute to the Caesar ; theological questions, too, 
such as the relative importance of the different com- 
mandments ; social questions, also, such as those 
relating to property ; ritual questions affecting cer- 
tain Church traditions. Our Lord's answers on such 
of these points as were from time to time presented 
to Him showed that He was so far separated from 
them as to regard them as altogether subordinate to 
those weightier matters of love to God and love to 
man which in principle had a clear and sufficient 
interpretation in the Scriptures. Whilst we are sure 
that nothing that was of interest to Humanity was 
uninteresting to Him, yet it is clear that He moved 
amongst men as one who had not time to give aught 
but the briefest possible directions concerning the 
questions of the hour. Indeed, when a matter 



240 The Ministry of " the Seer." 

respecting the division of an estate was laid before 
Him, He was severely abrupt in His manner of deal- 
ing with it. " Man, who made Me a judge or a 
divider over you?" He was in the world to lay 
down certain great principles ; the expression of them 
in details He left to others. The political Herodians 
and the worldly-minded Sadducces sneered at and 
hated this lofty attitude. So, too, the patriotic 
Pharisees and Scribes not only misunderstood, but 
ridiculed it. In their judgment He was a " Samar- 
itan" rather than a "Jew," and His Kingdom a 
delusion rather than a living reality. So, too, whilst 
He taught the duty of fasting by example as well as 
words, and, further, " the observance of those things 
which they who sat in Moses' seat taught," x yet He 
was separated from much of the ritual life of the peo- 
ple. His disciples treated the Sabbath with reverent 
freedom ; neglected such points of ritual as the wash- 
ing of hands before meals, and, during the earthly 
Ministry of their Lord, omitted fasting. This sepa- 
ration from certain religious habits and duties was also 
misunderstood. It was not that our Lord objected 
to the practices in themselves — some He distinct- 
ly advocated — but He feared all ritual observances 
which obscured their one and only justification, which 
was the advantage of man and the glory of God. 
This life of sanctification, which to the world seemed 
so narrow and limited, was also expressed in the out- 
ward hardness and severity of His manner of living. 
1 St. Matt, xxiii. 2. 



Consecration Implies Limitation. 241 

" From His childhood to His crucifixion He was 
destitute of all luxury and even of many of the com- 
forts of life. He could say of Himself what few 
vagrants and tramps can affirm of themselves : ' The 
foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests ; 
but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His Head ' 
(St. Luke ix. 58). He had neither house nor garden, 
vineyard nor farm. He had barely enough to supply 
Himself and His disciples with the necessaries of 
life. We know that on one occasion He and Peter 
did not possess between them as much as a di drachma 
to pay the tax. St. Paul says that Jesus Christ " being 
rich, He became poor for your sake, that through His 
poverty you might be rich." x And yet such stern 
severity of life, such exclusiveness in one direction, 
was not allowed to prevent His mixing freely with 
the sons of men, now dining with Simon the Pharisee 
and now with the wealthy Zacchaeus. But enough 
has been said to point His example in this regard. 
We are called to adopt the same principles, even 
though we may express them differently. Though the 
claim of the Father's House is always to be first, it 
must at times give way to the claim of devotion to 
family needs ; though we must read as widely as we 
can, yet, as we have seen, our reading can have but 
one object — that of a better comprehension of the 
Word of God. So, too, our natural sympathies with 
the life of politics, art, or letters must be severely 
restrained, so that no one may consider that we regard 
1 Cardinal Gibbons, "The Ambassador of Christ," p. 120. 
16 



242 The Ministry of " the Seer" 

these as our chief concern. Other men may have a 
reputation for gardening, for pictures, for books, but 
such a reputation is no compliment to the Priest, 
whose one aim and object is the building up of the 
Kingdom of God. He may indeed feel that work in 
these departments does not spoil his religious life, 
and may point to those artists and men of letters who 
have surpassed the clergy in religious devotion ; but 
the question still arises as to whether those souls who 
are committed to his charge are as much helped in 
those ways as they would be by personal conference 
and prayer with him. " For their sakes I sanctify 
Myself" contains the rule he applies to all his du- 
ties. So, too, he may feel a deep interest in some 
political movement, but it is indeed questionable as 
to whether it is wise or, indeed, whether he has time, 
to make such a study of it as may enable him to 
direct it. The principle underlying it, that of love to 
man, he emphasizes and illustrates again and again; 
the power of prayer, which is to shape its course, he 
uses daily ; but the specific direction of the question 
he leaves to others. Lacordaire rather lost than 
gained by his presence in the French Assembly, and 
it would seem that Savonarola's influence waned from 
the time that he gave political direction to the peo- 
ple of Florence. 

So, also, the life of the body must show the same 
mark of consecration as the life of the mind. And 
here the wearing of a distinctive habit has been 
found useful not only in the Church of God, but in 



Signs of Consecration. 243 

certain Christian societies, such as those of " The 
Friends " and " The Salvation Army," in reminding 
ourselves and others that for the sake of mankind we 
are pledged to a life of separation. So by our Saints' 
Days and Holy Days, our Festivals and Fasts, we 
mark time with a sign of consecration ; by our absti- 
nence and self-denials we mark our life with a sign 
of consecration; by our devotion to God's Word we 
mark our study with a sign of consecration. Limited 
the Priest's life must be, not indeed in sympathy, in 
which he should surpass all men, but in the objects 
to which he is able to give diligent attention and in 
the life which devotion to his flock calls upon him to 
lead; but he will not allow this limitation to be a 
barrier between him and those he serves. Nay, it is 
in order to serve them the better that he allows him- 
self to be fettered by them ; therefore all those affec- 
tations of manner, speech, or dress which so easily 
attach themselves to those who are living by rule, 
he cuts off as soon as he discovers. And fearing that 
he may not see what all are noticing, he often asks a 
friend whether the difficulties he finds in awaking a 
response are not due to some mannerism of which 
he yet remains ignorant. And his devotion has his 
reward. The worldly Herods are often inclined to 
set him at naught and condemn that which he knows 
characterized his Master's life; the Sadducees will 
jest about his doctrines, as the Pharisees about his 
want of scrupulous punctiliousness in this or that 
matter; but the children clamor for his blessing, the 



244 The Ministry of " the Seer!' 

" publicans and harlots " seek his aid, and the com- 
mon people recognizing that they have in him a con- 
stant friend, "hear him gladly." In this love of 
simple-hearted " Galileans " he finds his life, and 
when called upon to resign it, does it with a great 
hope that, having fought " the good fight of faith," 
the Master will give him the reward of the " crown 
of righteousness." 



DEVOTIONS. 

{From u Meditations on the Life of Christ J" 1 by Thomas a Kempis.) 

I bless and give Thee thanks, O Lord Jesu Christ, 
Pattern of holiness, Rule of conduct, Flower of virtue, 
sweet Savor of Life, Perfection of patience, for all Thy 
virtues and sweet manners ; for Thy singular gentle- 
ness and perfect examples, openly shown before Thy 
disciples and all Israel ; thereby gently inviting to Thy 
love the hearts of the lowly. 

{From Arvisenefs " Memoriale Vitce Sacerdotalis.") 

I know, O God, that if Thy Law be not my medita- 
tion, I shall perish in my lowliness. I know that with- 
out constant reading of it, I can be neither pious, nor 
wise, nor sufficiently learned. Therefore will I search 
Thy wonderful testimonies. I will search them daily, 
I will search them constantly. Daily will I draw near 
to this refreshment of my mind, that in it I may feed 
upon Thy words. There will I seek the truth and not 
eloquence, usefulness and not overnice subtlety. I will 
read religiously, I will read humbly, I will read with 
simplicity, I will read with faith. Grant me, O Lord, 
grant me understanding that I may understand Thy 
Word ; lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon 
me and teach me Thy judgments. I know that Thy 



246 Devotions. 

Book speaketh well ; but if Thou keep silence it neither 
enlighteneth the understanding nor inflameth the heart. 

Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent. 

Psalm cxix. vs. 8g-ii2. 

Hymns: 243 A. &* M.y 282 American Hymnal. 
Lord, Thy Word Abideth. 

284 American Hymnal. 
O Word of God Incarnate. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 

CANON MASON. 

The Conditions of Our Lord's Life Upon Earth. Being; Lectures 
delivered on the Bishop Paddock Foundation in the General Seminary 
at New York, 1896. To which is prefixed part of a First Professorial 
Lecture at Cambridge. By Arthur James Mason, D.D., Lady- 
Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and Canon of St 
Saviour's, Canterbury. Crown 8vo. $i-5<* 

The Principles of Ecclesiastical Unity: Four Lectures delivered in 
St. Asaph Cathedral on June 16, 17, 18, and 19. By Arthur James * 
Mason, D.D., Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and 
Canon of Canterbury. Crown 8vo, 162 pages. $1.00 

REV. H. C. POWELL, M.A. 

The Principle of the Incarnation. With especial reference to the Relation 
between the Lord's Divine Omniscience and His Human Consciousness. 
By the Rev. H. C. Powell, M.A. of Oriel College, Oxford; Rector 
of Wylye, Wilts. 8vo, 504 pages. $4.00 

" In this very painstaking volume Mr. Powell gives us, first, a theory of the 
Incarnation based on the principles of modern psychology; and secondly, a history 
and criticism of the views commonly known as Kenotic. . . . the author's second 
point ... is treated in a very scholarly way, with great clearness and thorough- 
ness." — The Guardian. 

ALFRED G. MORTIMER, D.D. 

Catholic Faith and Practice. A Manual of Theological Instruction for 
Confirmation and First Communion. By the Rev. Alfred G. Morti- 
mer, D.D., Rector of St. Mark's, Philadelphia; Author of " Helps to 
Meditation," "The Seven Last Words of Our Most Holy Redeemer," 
etc., etc. 8vo, pp. xiv-340. $2.00 

Contents : I. God— II. The Creation and Fall of the Angels— III. The Creation 
and Fall of Man— IV. The Incarnation— V. The Atonement— VI. The Church— 
VII. The Origin of the Church's Doctrine — VIII. Grace and the Sacraments in 
General— IX. Baptism — X. Confirmation — XI. The Sacrament of Penance — XII. Sin 
and Self-Examination — XIII. Conditions Required for Repentance — XIV. The Holy 
Eucharist — As a Sacrament — XV. The Holy Eucharist — The Real Presence — 
XVI. The Holy Eucharist — The Sacrifice — XVII. The Holy Eucharist— The 
Communion— XVIII. The Liturgy— XIX. Prayer— XX. The Rule of Life. 

Helps to Meditation : Sketches for Every Day in the Year. By the 
Rev. A. G. Mortimer, D.D. With an Introduction by the Right Rev. 
the Bishop of Springfield. 

Vol. I. Advent to Trinity. Twelfth Edition. 8vo. ^$2.50 

Vol. II. Trinity to Advent. Eleventh Edition. 8vo. ^$2.50 

Stories from Genesis : Sermons for Children. By the Rev. A. G. 
Mortimer, D.D. Crown 8vo. $1.00 

"... These Sermons will show how a very valuable foundation of Church 
teaching may be laid in young minds, and how children may be taught to trace the 
vital connection between faith and morality." — The Guardian, London. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 

THE BISHOP OF VERMONT. 

Christ's Temptation and Ours. By the Right Rev. A. C. A. Hall, 
D.D., Bishop of Vermont. (The Baldwin Lectures, 1896.) i2mo, cloth. 

$1.00 
Contents: I. The Necessity of Temptation for Man, and Its Possibility for 
Christ— II. The Story of the Temptation, and the Personality of the Tempter— 
III. The Temptation Through the Body — IV, The Temptation to Presumption— 
V. The Temptation of Power— VI. The Passion a Sequel to the Temptation, and 
the Renewal of Its Struggle. 

MORGAN DIX, S.T.D. 

Harriet Starr Cannon, First Mother Superior of the Sisterhood of 
St. Mary. A Brief Memoir by Morgan Dix, sometime Pastor of the 
Community. With 4 plates (2 portraits). Small crown 8vo, cloth, 
gilt top. $1.25 

" The biography of Mother Harriet is a history of one of the most successful 
experiments in community life which our Church has yet enjoyed. . . . The 
wonder is that Dr. Dix should have compressed so much into so small a space. . . . 
there is no undue compression, nothing hasty and nothing overwrought. The life of 
Mother Harriet is an example of holy living and holy dying. She was a brave woman 
and strong, but above all things womanly, and the strength and courage of her 
character were both chastened and invigorated by the blessed assurance of an accepted 
self-consecration." — The Church Standard. 

REV. E. G. MURPHY. 

The Larger Life. Sermons and an Essay. By the Rev. Edgar Gardner 
Murphy. With an Introduction by the Bishop Coadjutor of Southern 
Ohio. Crown 8vo. $i-5Q 

Contents: I. The Christian's Knowing — II. The Sabbath Principle and the 
Sabbath Spirit— III. The Heart and the Earth— IV. A Parable of Confidence— 
V. The Brother of the Prodigal — VI. Essential Churchmanship— VII. The Practising 
of Religion— VIII. The Life and the Work— IX. The Church's Book— X. The 
Meaning of the Books — XI. The Unperfected Church — XII. Formalism and Liber- 
alism — XIII. God's Evidence for God — XIV. The Social Prophecy of Jesus Christ — 
XV. For the Easter Faith— XVI. The Continuing Cross— XVII. The Reverence of 
Science and the Appeal of the Resurrection — XVIII. The New Religion and the 
Modern Mind. An Essay. 

ELEANOR TEE. 

The Sanctuary of Suffering. By Eleanor Tee, Author of "This 
Everyday Life," etc. With a Preface by the Rev. J. P. F. Davidson, 
M.A., Vicar of S. Matthias, Earl's Court. Crown 8vo. 387 pages. 

$2.00 

"... The author writes with a freshness and ease of expression that make 
the book the most delightful reading. ... We know of no book more calculated 
to help one in trouble, more free from anything that is morbid, more full of divine 
love, better calculated to teach truth without arousing prejudice, nor written in a 
more happy and sympathetic style."— Church Eclectic, Milwaukee. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 



REV. WILLIAM BAYARD HALE. 

The New Obedience. A Plea for Social Submission to Christ. By 
William Bayard Hale, Mission Priest of the Church of Our Saviour, 
Middleboro, Mass. i2mo, cloth. $1.25 

Contents : I. The Authority of Truth— II. The Code and the Issue— III. The 
New and Great Commandment— IV. The Coming Kingdom— V. The Present Duty— 
VI. The New Freedom— VII. The Certain Triumph— Notes. 



THE LATE CANON LIDDON. 

Sermons Preached on Special Occasions, 1860-1889. By H. P. 

Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., late Canon and Chancellor of St. 
Paul's. Crown 8vo. $2.00 

*** A collection of some of the carefully prepared Occasional Sermons published by 
Dr. Liddon, which has the interest of illustrating the style of his preaching at different 
periods during the thirty most active years of his life. The volume is uniform in 
general size and style with the set of the author's works printed in crown octavo. 



REV. B. W. MATURIN, D.D. 

Some Principles and Practices of the Spiritual Life. By the Rev. 
B. W. Maturin, Mission Priest of the Society of St. John the Evan- 
gelist, Cowley, Oxford. Crown 8vo. $1.50 

" The tone of the book is thoroughly healthy, and the manner of spiritual life 
which it seeks to foster is of the most robust and manly sort. We have never found 
the topics of which it treats grasped with a firmer or truer hand, nor presented in a 
more persuasive form. We believe the book will become a devotional classic, and 
take rank with such works as " The Light of the Conscience " and " The Hidden Life 
of the Soul."— Living Church. 

Teachings from the Parables. By the Rev. B. W. Maturin. Crown 
8vo. [Just ready. 



REV. ARTHUR HEBER BROWNE, M.A. 

Wearied with the Burden : a Book of Daily Readings for Lent. By 
Rev. Arthur Heber Browne, M.A., LL.D., Rector of St. John's, 
and Canon of Newfoundland Cathedral. Crown 8vo. $1.25 

" The Meditations in this volume are to some extent adapted either for reading in 
church — a custom which appears to be now very general in Lent — after Matins or 
Evensong, or for the private use of those who may be prevented from attendance at 
the daily offices. These readings endeavor to follow very closely the lines of thought 
marked out by the Church for her children's guidance during the Lenten season. 
Each Meditation is based upon the Gospel for the day, and deals with some link in 
the " Chain of our Sins," as it appears in the light of our Blessed Lord's life and 
teaching."— Extract from Preface. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 



WYLLYS REDE, D.D. 

Striving for the Mastery. Daily Lessons for Lent. By the Rev. 
Wyllys Rede, D.D., Canon of the Cathedral and Rector of the 
Church of the Incarnation, Atlanta, Georgia. $1.00 

This book claims the attention of all those, both clergy and laity, who are form- 
ing- their plans for Lent. It consists of a series of forty ten-minute addresses or 
readings, following a systematic line of thought throughout the holy season. 
It will appeal especially to two classes of people : 

i. Hard-worked parish priests, who do not find time for the preparation of such 
a series every year, and yet desire to help their people to draw nigh to God in 
the practice of devout meditation during Lent. 

2. Christian people who are accustomed to spend some part of each day in Lent 
in spiritual reading, and many of whom are deprived of Church privileges. 

The clergy will find these addresses well suited for reading at the daily services 
in Church, and people who cannot attend such services will find them equally 
adapted for morning or evening reading and meditation at home. 
Contexts : First Week in Lent. The mastery over self — Keeping under the 
body — Governing the mind — Bridling the tongue — The subjugation of the 
will. Second Week. The mastery over temptation — The trial of our faith — 
Does God lead us into temptation ?— Is it a sin to be tempted ?— Temptation 
to distrust God — Temptation to presumption and false confidence — Tempta- 
tion to do evil that good may come. Third Week. The mastery over the 
world. Is the world our friend or our enemy ?— Overcoming the evil that is in 
the world — Overcoming the world by faith — Non-conformity to the world — 
Crucifying the world — The profit and loss of worldliness. Fourth Week. The 
mastery over adversity — The school of life — The mastery by poverty of spirit — 
By meekness — By mourning— By peace-making — Through persecution. Fifth 
Week. The mastery over sin— The mystery of iniquity — The pervasiveness of 
sin — The deceitfulness of sin— The lawlessness of sin — The malignity of sin — 
The mystery of godliness. Sixth Week. The mastery over suffering — Betrayal 
—Misjudgment— Poverty— Sufferings of the body— Sufferings of the soul— The 
reward of suffering. Holy Week. The mastery over death — What is death ? 
—Obedience unto death— Love stronger than death— The blessing of a finished 
life — The surrender of the soul — After death. 

The Communion of Saints. By the Rev. Wyllys Rede, D.D. With 
a Preface by Lord Halifax. Crown 8vo. $1-25 

" The book is valuable as a clear exposition of the teaching of the Church concern- 
ing the fellowship, the brotherhood which in her mind exists between all who are 
baptized into the Church of Christ, whether living or departed. And it will be 
found no less valuable as affording the truest and most efficacious consolation to 
all the sad company of those who grieve because their friends are not. One turns 
away with almost angry impatience from the wearisome commonplaces with 
which many good people seek to bind up the breaking heart, for they act like salt 
upon a raw wound. It is only in the truth that all are one in Christ— the doctrine 
of the Communion of Saints — that any healing for such sorrow resides. There- 
fore, both on this account and for the clear statement of this doctrine, the book is 
a very valuable one. and deserves to be not only widely read by church people, but 
carefully digested." — Pacific Churchman. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, cV CO.' S PUBLICATIONS. 



REV. C. ERNEST SMITH. 

In the Household of Faith. By the Rev. C. Ernest Smith, M.A., 
Rector of the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Baltimore, Md. ; 
Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Maryland. i2mo, pp. xi.-2o,<v 

$1.25. 

" The work is fully up with the times, and apt illustrations drawn from peri- 
odical literature make it a valuable repository of facts pertinent to the important 
questions here treated. . . . The reading of this book . . . will be a pleasant 
and profitable task for all who love the Church."— Churchman, New York. 

Call to Confirmation. A Manual of Instruction for Candidates. By 
the Rev. C. Ernest Smith, M. A. Paper, 12 cents net; cloth, 25 cents. 

"... Admirable in plan and execution. . . . Just the kind of thing we 
have long been looking for. ... It will be found most helpful in this most 
difficult and delicate duty of properly preparing Candidates for Confirmation."— 
Church Affairs, Easton, Md. 

The Old Church in the New Land. Lectures on Church History. By 
the Rev. C. Ernest Smith, M.A. With a Preface by the Bishop of 
Maryland. Crown 8vo, cloth. $1.25. 

"We heartily endorse the recommendation of the Bishop of Maryland, and we 
go farther : we should say that this little book is perhaps the very best historical 
account of the Church of England for family reading that we have ever seen ; and 
an attentive congregation, to which these lectures should be read, would be well 
prepared to vindicate the position of the Anglican Church against the assaults of 
either Rome or Geneva. It is not a controversial book, but its statements are so 
plain as to make argument superfluous." — The Church Standard. 

" These lectures deserve all the praise we can give them. We strongly recom- 
mend their addition to parish libraries, and their study to teachers, lay readers, 
and to not a few of the clergy. They retell the story of the old Church in the new 
land with an accuracy of detail both in fact and doctrine that is refreshing, and 
with a style as vigorous and pointed as it is clear. " — The American Church 
Almanac, 1895. 

" Here is a book for every member of the Brotherhood to own and study. Mr. 
Smith very justly says : l A knowledge of some of the chief facts in the history of 
the Church has become almost a necessity to every Churchman, and there are, con- 
sequently, few subjects upon which lecture-sermons can more appropriately be 
preached in our day than on Church History, especially on the history of our own 
branch. To some persons this may seem a very unedifying kind of a subject ; 
they prefer what is known as " Gospel preaching ; " they have, indeed, no interest 
in any other ; and if. unfortunately, they are compelled to listen to any other, 
they imagine there is no help in it, and are none the better for it, but rather the 
worse.' 

" This is all true enough, and when this instruction is given with a clearness 
and freshness that illuminate the subject, it becomes a pleasure as well as a duty 
to receive it. . . . With a scholarship which is never heavy, with a belief 
in the Catholic Church which never descends into mere partisanism, the lectures, 
in the words of the Bishop of Maryland, who writes the preface, admirably fulfil 
their purpose to trace the links of that continuity (between the Church in America 
and the Church in England), to make Churchmen feel sure through them of an 
apostolic origin, to help them know that this is no late-born sect, but that in it we 
are in the very 'fellowship of the Apostles.' . . . Make yourself a . . . 
present of this book, read it, digest it, and then lend it as widely as possible 
among your friends."— St. Andrew's Cross. 

"The whole story is told in strong and clear outline, in a very interesting and 
instructive way, and any one who follows the plain teaching in this little volume 
cannot fail to be convinced of the identity of our Church with that Church which 
the Lord Jesus founded. We wish that every layman would read it, for we are 
sure he would find it full of strength and truth."— The Living Church. 



A SELECTED LIST 

OF THEOLOGICAL BOOKS 

PUBLISHED BY 

LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., NEW YORK 

REV. ALFRED G. MORTIMER, D.D. 

The Seven Last Words of Our Most Holy Redeemer. With Medi- 
tations on Some Scenes in His Passion. By the Rev. Alfred G. Mor- 
timer, D.D., Rector of St. Mark's, Philadelphia. i2mo. $1.00 

Contents : Meditations on the Passion— I. The Scourging of our Blessed Lord 
— II. The Mockery of our Blessed Lord — III. The Presentation of our Blessed 
Lord to the People— IV. The Cross-bearing of our Blessed Lord— V. The Pierc- 
ing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ— VI. The Uplifting of the Cross of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

The Three Hours' Agony of our Lord Jesus Christ — Introductory Address 
—The First Word— The Second Word— The Third Word— The Fourth Word— 
The Fifth Word— The Sixth Word— The Seventh Word. 

"The Meditations in this volume were given in Lent (1895) in St. Mark's, 
Philadelphia, at noon on Fridays. Though complete in themselves, they are really 
a continuation of a course on the Passion of our Blessed Lord which had been de- 
livered in St. Mark's the previous Lent. In the latter course the Passion had 
been treated as witnessing as a whole to certain moral virtues. In the present 
series a few scenes in the Passion have been taken in relation to the individual 
soul. The Addresses on the Seven Last Words were given in the same church at 
the Three Hours' Service on Good Friday, 1895. Together they form a consecu- 
tive series of Meditations for Holy Week or for the Fridays in Lent."— Extract 
from Preface. 

BISHOP A. C. A. HALL. 

The Virgin Mother. Retreat Addresses on the Life of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary, as Told in the Gospels. With an Appended Essay on 
the Virgin Birth of Our Lord. By the Rt. Rev. A. C. A. Hall, D.D., 
Bishop of Vermont. i2mo. $1.25 

"It is often said, and the saying is true, that Protestantism and Anglicanism 
have lost something of sweet Christian tenderness in their extreme reaction from 
the semi-idolatrous cultus of the Blessed Virgin which prevailed in the Middle 
Ages. We have not the slightest tendency to that form of doctrinal aberration ; 
nor would it be possible, we suppose, for any clear-minded Englishman or Ameri- 
can to join in the glowing but hyperbolical addresses to the Mother of our Lord 
which are found in the liturgies of Oriental Churches ; yet it does seem that some- 
thing has been lost in our habitual forgetfulness of the human being to whom our 
blessed Lord in His earthly life was nearest and dearest, and who, doubtless, of 
all the sons and daughters of men, was— nay, perhaps still is— nearest and dear- 
est to Him. In this little volume, Bishop Hall very admirably and delicately dis- 
courses of the Blessed Virgin with the reverent affection which is due to her. and 
yet without the slightest approach to the extravagances which our Church has 
rightly and wisely banished. In a brief appendix he has written a few timely 
words on the subject of the virgin birth of our Lord, considered as an article of 
the Christian faith. 1 '— The Church Standard, Philadelphia. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.' S PUBLICATIONS. 

AIDS TO THE INNER LIFE. Edited by the Rev. W. H. Hutch- 
ings, M.A., Rector of Kirkby Misperton, Yorkshire. 5 volumes, each 
volume sold separately, as follows : 

32mo, cloth limp. $0.25 

321.no, cloth extra. .50 

Of the Imitation of Christ. By Thomas a Kempis. In Four 
Books. 

The Christian Year. Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holy 
Days throughout the Year. 

The Devout Life. By St. Francis de Sales. 

The Hidden Life of the Soul. From the French of Jean Nicolas 
Grou. 

The Spiritual Combat. Together with the Supplement and the 
Path of Paradise. By Laurence Scupoli. 

Uniform with the above : 

The Light of the Conscience. By H. L. Sidney Lear. 

The Spiritual Letters of St. Francis de Sales. 

AVANCINI. Vita et Doctrina Jesu Christi. Ex Quatuor Evan- 
gelistis collecta et in Meditationum Materiam ad Singulos totius Anni 
Dies distributa. Per N. Avancinum, S. J. Ad usum Cleri Anglicani 
accommodavit Presbyter Ignotus. Editio Secunda. i8mo. $1.00 

" Besides its original purpose as a help to meditation, Avancini would make a 
valuable help to the preparation of short sermons. There are in all some 400 
meditations, and each meditation has three points. Almost every one of these 
points would bear amplification into a sermon a few minutes long ; and, if the 
book were used in this way we should hear less than we do from the clergy of 
the difficulty of preparation, and from the laity of the extent to which it is omitted. 1 ' 
— Guardian. 

BALFOUR. The Foundations of Belief: Being Notes Introductory 
to the Study of Theology. By the Right Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, 
M. P. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. $2.oc 

BATHE. Works by Anthony Bathe, M.A. 

What I Should Believe. A Simple Manual of Self-instruction foi 
Church People. Crown 8vo. $0.75 

A Lent with Jesus. A Plain Guide for Churchmen. Containing 
Readings for Lent and Easter Week, and on the Holy Eucharist. $0.40 

The Christian's Roadbook. By Anthony Bathe and F. H. Buck- 
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